Hidetoshi Nakata Biography

Hidetoshi Nakata
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Hidetoshi Nakata
Personal information
Full name Hidetoshi Nakata
Date of birth January 22, 1977 (1977-01-22) (age 31)
Place of birth    Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Playing position Midfielder (Retired)
Youth clubs
1986–1989
1989–1992
1992–1995		 Hokushin Boys Soccer Club
Kofu Kita Jr. H.S.
Nirasaki H.S.
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1995–1998
1998–2000
2000–2001
2001–2004
2004
2004–2005
2005–2006		 Bellmare Hiratsuka
Perugia
AS Roma
Parma
→Bologna (loan)
Fiorentina
→Bolton Wanderers (loan)
Total		 085 (16)
048 (12)
030 0(5)
067 0(5)
017 0(2)
033 0(0)
024 0(1)
289 (41)   
National team
1997–2006 Japan 077 (11)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.
* Appearances (Goals)

Hidetoshi Nakata (中田 英寿 Nakata Hidetoshi; born January 22, 1977 in Yamanashi Prefecture), is a Japanese former 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 Nakata in his 125 Top Living Footballers in March 2004.

Contents

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 for £15 Million, whom he helped to win the scudetto. The highlight of Nakata's career at Roma came on May 6, 2001 in the Serie A match against Juventus F.C. at Stadio Delle Alpi. After replacing Francesco Totti in the second half with Roma trailing 0-2, Nakata netted with a 30-yard screamer beyond Juventus goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar's reach. Nakata then set up another goal when his fierce drive from outside the box was parried into the path of Vincenzo Montella, who duly equalised for Roma. The match ended with a 2-2 draw and Roma maintained a six-point margin atop the league table.

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 the summer of 2001, he joined Parma for £18.5 million, 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 following 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. His performance against Croatia earned him a Man of the Match award.4

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 2000 and 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 will never give up football."56 On June 9, 2007, he made an appearance for the first time in public after his retirement on the pitch again when he played for Luís Figo's charity match.citation needed On June 2nd 2008, it was reported that the Manchester City owner was trying to get Nakata out of retirement to join the club.citation needed

Nakata has cited the popular manga and anime series, Captain Tsubasa, as his primary inspiration in choosing football as a career.7

Career statistics

Club performance League Cup League Cup Continental Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Japan League Emperor's Cup J. League Cup Asia Total
1995 Bellmare Hiratsuka J. League 26 8 2 1 - - 28 9
1996 26 2 3 0 12 2 - 41 4
1997 21 3 3 0 6 1 - 30 4
1998 12 3 - - - 12 3
Italy League Coppa Italia League Cup Europe Total
1998-99 Perugia Serie A 33 10 0 0 - - 33 10
1999-00 15 2 4 1 - - 19 3
1999-00 Roma Serie A 15 3 1 0 - - 16 3
2000-01 15 2 0 0 - 7 1 22 3
2001-02 Parma Serie A 24 1 6 2 - 8 1 38 4
2002-03 31 4 2 0 - 4 0 37 4
2003-04 12 0 2 0 - 4 1 18 1
2003-04 Bologna Serie A 17 2 0 0 - - 17 2
2004-05 Fiorentina Serie A 20 0 3 0 - - 23 0
England League FA Cup Football League Cup Europe Total
2005-06 Bolton Wanderers Premier League 21 1 3 0 2 0 6 0 32 1
Total Japan 85 16 8 1 18 3 - 111 20
Italy 182 24 18 3 - 23 3 223 30
England 21 1 3 0 2 0 6 0 26 1
Career Total 288 41 29 4 20 3 29 3 366 51

National team

Honours

Outside football

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.8 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,"9 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." 10 He was featured in the July 2007 US version of GQ Magazine with a 12-page spread on Fall Fashion.

Nakata is currently also an Editor-at-Large at Monocle11 at the invitation of his friend Tyler Brûlé, who also serves as the magazine's Editor-in-Chief.

Notes and references

  1. ^ "Arise, Sir Nak!", This Is Lancashire (2005-10-14). Retrieved on 3 July 2006. 
  2. ^ "Japan in need of miracle", 2006 FIFA World Cup (2006-06-21). Retrieved on 3 July 2006. 
  3. ^ "Just making the final was a triumph for cup co-host", Associated Press (2001-06-11). Retrieved on 3 July 2006. 
  4. ^ "Japan 0-0 Croatia", BBC News (2006-06-18). Retrieved on 7 July 2008. 
  5. ^ "Japan and Bolton midfielder Nakata to retire", Reuters (2006-07-03). Retrieved on 3 July 2006. 
  6. ^ "To live is to journey, and to journey is to live.", nakata.net (2006-07-03). Retrieved on 22 January 2007. 
  7. ^ ‘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.
  8. ^ Efe Sodje (2002). "Footballers ... haircuts. Not always the best combination!", BBC. Retrieved on 4 July 2006. 
  9. ^ J. J. Martin (2002-07-01). "Feast for marketers: It's all about soccer", International Herald Tribune. Retrieved on 4 July 2006. 
  10. ^ Eric Wilson (2006-06-22). "BLEACH IT LIKE BECKHAM: World Cup of hair style", New York Times. Retrieved on 4 July 2006. 
  11. ^ Hide Chaser ｜nakata.net - 中田英寿オフィシャルホームページ

External links

Preceded by
Masashi Ozaki		 Japan Professional Sports Grand Prize Winner
1997		 Succeeded by
Kazuhiro Sasaki
v • d • e
Asian Footballer of the Year
1988: Radhi | 1989: Kim Joo-Sung | 1990: Kim Joo-Sung | 1991: Kim Joo-Sung | 1992: No award | 1993: Miura | 1994: Al-Owairan | 1995: Ihara | 1996: Azizi | 1997: Nakata | 1998: Nakata | 1999: Daei | 2000: Al-Temyat | 2001: Fan Zhiyi | 2002: Ono | 2003: Mahdavikia | 2004: Karimi | 2005: Al-Montashari | 2006: Ibrahim | 2007: Al-Qahtani | 2008: Djeparov