Ritsu Doan Parents Are Japanese Buddhists From Amagasaki

Ritsu Doan and his Japanese parents live 5000 miles away from each other. His parents raised three kids.

The winger was raised by his parents in a city historically known to be the residence of the Japanese working class called Amagasaki. At 19, he left his hometown and traveled to Holland to experience European football at F.C. Groningen.

He makes sure to FaceTime his parents every two to three times a week. They were the ones who encouraged him to go outside and play football at a young age.

On May 12, 2019, when he scored against Fortuna Sittard, he dedicated his goal to his father, whose birthday falls on the same date. If it weren't for his parents' encouragement to pursue him to play outside, we probably would've never seen Doan in a football jersey.

In his interview with the Bundesliga website in 2020, the 24-year-old revealed his life back home in Japan. At the time, Ritsu was on loan with the German side Arminia Bielefeld.

It was his first stint in Bundesliga, and earlier this season he fully committed his future to the Bundesliga side S.C. Freiburg. The Japanese player revealed that whenever he visits his parents, they enjoy karaoke together, which is a tradition for every Japanese family.

Ritsu Doan is not Vietnamese. The football player was born to Japanese parents in Hyogo Prefecture.

The confusion regarding his nationality started because of his highly unusual and not-so-Japanese last name "Doan". For many years, the Doan surname has been mostly found in people of Vietnamese origin. But this is not the case in the case of Ritsu.

In his interview with the official Bundegslia page, the winger didn't reveal anything about his possible Vietnamese origin but talked about his country Japan and what his life was like on the island nation.

The winger has 30 caps for Japan and has represented Japan since he was 16. He was promoted to the senior side in 2018 when he was 20.

Ritsu Doan has two brothers, one of them being football player Yu Doan. Ritsu is the youngest of three siblings. 

In his interview, Ritsu revealed it was because of his elder siblings that he was inspired to play football. Ritsu and Yu followed in their eldest brother's footsteps as they decided to join a football team in their primary school. 

Today Ritsu is a star player on the Japanese team, having featured alongside several other international stars, including Bukayo Saka, in ad campaigns to raise public awareness.

Yu, who is three years older than Ritsu, currently plays for the Japanese team based in Tokyo prefecture named Ococias Kyoto AC. He previously played for Nagana Parceiro, where he made 37 appearances and scored six goals. 

But unlike their younger brother, Yu and their elder brother were not able to create a huge impact in Japanese or International football.