Easily the best sports interview of 2017 so far.

Japanese sports players overseas can often be perceived as shy and reserved in front of the camera, but this image is possibly borne out of a lack of English proficiency for a population that comes from an island nation. Well, there is now a new Internet sensation breaking down those stereotypes and he comes from the comparatively not-so-popular sport of professional pool. His name is Naoyuki Oi, and you may want to remember the name because it may be popping up a bit more often in the future.

Here is Naoyuki Oi’s hilarious post-match interview after winning his first round at the World Pool Masters this week being held in Spain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAGFOIHsZ60

The British interviewer is taken aback after receiving less than conventional responses from Oi, who had possibly pre-prepared at least some of his post-match interview answers.

In case you’re unable to view the video above, the interviewer begins by proposing to Oi that, “We thought you’d won it a couple of racks before you did win it.”

To which Oi replies, “My name is Naoyuki Oi. Today, very lucky. Congratulation me! Yay!”

And then adds, “English a little, no problem. Only so.”

The look on Oi’s face and the interviewer’s face is absolutely priceless. Not what the interviewer was expecting, as at one point during the interview he even says, “I’ve not ever done an interview quite like this before, Naoyuki.”

The interviewer goes on to ask Oi, “So you had that shot to win it and you kind of recreated it for the crowd afterwards. When that didn’t go in did you think, ‘I might have blown it here?’”

To which Oi completely ignores the question and answers in classic PPAP (“Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen”) style:

“I have a pen. I have a apple. Oi apple pen. Sonna kanji (meaning ‘something like that’ in Japanese)”.

 

At this point Oi has both the crowd and the interviewer in stitches.

“Do you think you can win this tournament?” the interviewer finally asks.

“No problem,” says Oi after a long delay – perhaps he was trying to think of some more funny material.

Later, the Japanese pool player gave another hilarious post-match interview, this time after he was defeated by Albin Ouschan.

Here are some online comments about Oi’s hilarious post-match victory interview:

“This has to go viral. ‘Congratulations Meeee!'”
“Japan does it again!”
“Hilarious. He deserves to win the thing and we get another interview.”
“This is my favorite pool player ever since the 2015 world cup.”
“This guy has a great sense of humour.”

Naoyuki Oi may still need to give a few more interviews before he surpasses perhaps the greatest Japanese sports interviewee of all time, major league baseball player Munenori Kawasaki, but he sure is well on his way.

Source: MatchroomSport
Featured image: YouTube/SportingMoments