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Hidetoshi Nakata

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Hidetoshi Nakata
File:Hidetoshi nakata.jpg
Personal information
Full name Hidetoshi Nakata
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s) Midfielder

Hidetoshi Nakata (中田 英寿 Nakata Hidetoshi; born January 22, 1977 in Yamanashi Prefecture), is a former Japanese football player. He was one of the most famous Asian footballers of his generation.

Nakata began his professional career in 1995 and won the Asian Football Confederation Player of the Year award in 1997 and 1998, the Scudetto with A.S. Roma in 2001, played for Japan in three FIFA World Cup tournaments(1998, 2002 and 2006) and played in the Olympics twice (1996 and 2000). In 2005, he was made the Knight of the Star of Italian Solidarity, one of the Italy's highest honours, for improving the country's image overseas.[1] Nakata is known as a fashion icon, regularly attending runway shows and wearing designer fashion.

Nakata announced his retirement at age 29 on July 3, 2006 after a ten-year career that included seven seasons in the Italian Serie A and a season in the English Premiership.

Pelé named Hidetoshi Nakata in his 125 Top Living Footballers in March 2004.

Biography

Nakata began his professional career at age 18 in 1995, with J. League side Bellmare Hiratsuka (now Shonan Bellmare). He represented Japan at the 1996 Olympics, where Japan upset Brazil.[2] Nakata also appeared in the 2000 Olympics.

He made his senior national team debut in May 1997 against South Korea and was a key member of the Japanese side that qualified for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, setting up all three Japanese goals in the qualification play-off against Iran. After the World Cup in France, he moved to Perugia in Italy's Serie A.

In January 2000, after one and a half seasons at Perugia, Nakata moved to Roma, whom he helped win the Serie A championship with two late goals to secure a 2-2 draw against league rivals Juventus. He also helped Japan reach the final of the 2001 Confederations Cup that season, but left the national team before the final to join Roma for their final league matches.[3]

In 2001, he joined Parma, where he played for two and a half seasons.

Nakata played in every match for Japan at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, and scored a goal against Tunisia.

In January 2004, Nakata joined Bologna where he played the remainder of the 2003/04 season before moving to Fiorentina, where he played the 2004/05 season.

In August 2005, Nakata moved to Premiership side Bolton Wanderers on loan.

At the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Nakata played in all three matches for Japan, losing to Australia and Brazil, and drawing with Croatia. Although Nakata has appeared in every World Cup match that Japan has played thus far, he was not selected for the country's Asian Cup-winning squads in either 2000 or 2004.

On July 3, 2006, Nakata announced his retirement from professional football and the Japanese national team on his personal website "I decided half a year ago that I would retire from the world of professional football... after the World Cup in Germany," Nakata wrote, "I will never again stand on the pitch as a professional player. But I won't stop playing the game."[4][5]

Nakata has cited the popular manga and anime series, Captain Tsubasa, as his primary inspiration in choosing football as a career.[6]

Clubs

National team

Honors

Fashion

File:Hidetoshi nakata fashion.jpg
Hidetoshi in Prague.

Outside of football Nakata has shown interest in fashion, attending runway shows, wearing designer clothing and sporting colorful haircuts. He dyed his hair red for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, hoping to attract the attention of European scouts, and Japanese hairstylist Aki Watanabe credits him as a trendsetter in hair styles.[7] Andrea Tenerani, photographer for GQ in Italy said of Nakata, "He's perfect; he's like a model. And he's totally obsessed with fashion,"[8] and Calvin Klein designer Italo Zucchelli said, "(Nakata) plays with fashion like all of them now, but in a cooler, more sophisticated way than many others." [9]






Trivia

Nakata shares the same birthday as Mohamed Sissoko (Liverpool)and Jonathan Woodgate (Real Madrid).

Notes and references

  1. ^ "Arise, Sir Nak!". This Is Lancashire. 2005-10-14. Retrieved 2006-07-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ "Japan in need of miracle". 2006 FIFA World Cup. 2006-06-21. Retrieved 2006-07-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "Just making the final was a triumph for cup co-host". Associated Press. 2001-06-11. Retrieved 2006-07-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ "Japan and Bolton midfielder Nakata to retire". Reuters. 2006-07-03. Retrieved 2006-07-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ "To live is to journey, and to journey is to live". nakata.net. 2006-07-03. Retrieved 2007-01-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ ‘I don’t understand why people are football fans. I don’t like to watch any kind of sport’ - by Jonathan Northcroft, The Sunday Times, January 1, 2006.
  7. ^ Efe Sodje (2002). "Footballers ... haircuts. Not always the best combination!". BBC. Retrieved 2006-07-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ J. J. Martin (2002-07-01). "Feast for marketers: It's all about soccer". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 2006-07-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ Eric Wilson (2006-06-22). "BLEACH IT LIKE BECKHAM: World Cup of hair style". New York Times. Retrieved 2006-07-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

Preceded by Asian Footballer of the Year
1997, 1998 		Succeeded by
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