 Tsubasa's first team, the Nankatsu, was based on a team Takahashi took part in as child that aimed to become a first-category team despite being low-skilled at the time.In retrospect, Takahashi said Tsubasa was a less realistic character than other protagonists he had created; most notably the character Kyosuke Kano from the "" series was written to be more realistic and had to face family issues and relearn the rules of the sport.When he began writing the original series, Takahashi told readers Tsubasa was a football player whom the players could relate if they cared about the sport.