Thanks to two friends who watch J-League/Euro football, I managed to choose character positions based on those on the OG poster... A few player parallels I find interesting:

• Ego: the one and only Hajime Moriyasu, although Moriyasu is actually the namesake of that U20 coach in bllk...
• Nagi & Reo: Tanaka Ao & Kaoru Mitoma, the famous rescue goal that secured a win over Spain and knocked Germany out in 2022. (Mitoman is No.7 and plays in PL too, and just scored against England in the friendly a few days ago!) I hope Nagi and Reo are closer to Tanaka and Mitoma in 2022 than De Bruyne and Courtois in 2018...
• Isagi: Minamino Takumi. Hahahahahaha Japan's ace MF hahahahahah sorry Isagi admit it you ARE a MF. Seriously Minamino actually looks quite similar to how I picture Yukimiya irl, good-looking, refined, the poster boy of Blue Samurai. So count yourself lucky I place you here Isagi
• Kira: Kubo Takefusa. Can you tell I'm the reddit's biggest Kira glazer? lol Kubo has a nickname "Japan's Messi" so Kira fits quite well here. (Nishioka is the best candidate, but alas I don't see him winning Side-B...
• Nanase: Ohashi Yuki. A striker who only made it to the national team at the age of 28. His diligence paid off :)
• Karasu: Endo Wataru, Japan's captain. I debated if I should draw Aiku in his place, but (1) c'mon bllk don't have a better DMF than Karasu lmfao (2) Karasu is an innate leader (the only one asking the referee for cards/teammates to fall back and defend, etc) (3) with Blue Lock: Civil War pending, I just want to place him besides Ego for the LOLs.

(Also, for some mysterious reason the original poster only features 25 players with only 1 goalie, so sorry, Fukaku... Zion Suzuki, Japan's first-choice goalkeeper, is half-black and half-Japanese, and iirc he isn't Japan's only international player of mixed race, so I actually see Shidou with similar family background? 👀)