Takumi Minamino has played for Liverpool since 2020. A few years earlier, however, the Japanese managed something quite extraordinary.
Shaking hands to greet or say goodbye has almost died out in times of the corona pandemic in the past two years. What is still there, however, is the sporting felicitations. A high five after a successful campaign is still part of it.
A professional footballer who is apparently particularly talented at this is Liverpool’s Takumi Minamino. The Japanese recently revealed a curious fact. Because Minamino was once in the Guinness Book of Records for the most high fives in one minute!
“Yes, I had the record for the most high-fives in one minute. But I think it has since been broken,” said the 26-year-old recently in the Reds’ matchday magazine. Minamino set the record in January 2014, when he was still playing for his youth club Cerezo Osaka in his Japanese homeland.
“There was an event for the people from the region and the city that was organized by the club. About 200 people lined up in a mall. And because I was the youngest player on the team, I should take part “he explained.
Minamino set record in shopping mall in Japan
So Minamino ran down the line and gave each line of people a high-five. A picture that seems to come from a bygone geological age. In 60 seconds he hit 171 hands, which was a world record at the time.
“It’s a fond memory and we’re still talking about it. Maybe it would be fun to celebrate a goal at Liverpool like that,” said Minamino, who joined Jürgen Klopp’s team almost exactly two years ago and has since scored nine goals.
Minamino’s record was pulverized
After the record he had set up, Minamino naturally received the mandatory certificate, which he proudly accepted. In the meantime, however, and Minamino is right, the record has been broken. And not only was it broken, it was pulverized. On April 21, 2016, the American Kaiser Permanente achieved an incredible 290 handshakes in one minute.
