NAKATA: THE GREAT JAPANESE FOOTBALLER

Hidetoshi Nakata is a Japanese former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. A quick, creative, hard-working, and offensive-minded central midfielder, with an eye for goal, Nakata was known for his technical ability, agility, vision, passing, and his ability to make attacking runs into the penalty area and score goals; he also possessed a powerful shot from outside the box. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest Japanese players of all time.

Born on 22 January 1977, Nakata began his professional career at age 18 with J1 League side Bellmare Hiratsuka (Shonan Bellmare). He played as attacking midfielder and the club won the 1995 Asian Cup Winners Cup, the first Asian title in the club history. Nakata was named Player of The Year by the Asian Football Confederation in 1997 and 1998.

After having represented Japan at the 1993 U17 World Championship and the 1995 U20 World Championship, Nakata was part of the U23 Japan squads at the 1996 Olympics, where Japan upset Brazil, and at the 2000 Olympics. His senior national team debut came in May 1997 against South Korea.

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Nakata was a key member of the Japanese side that qualified for the 1998 World Cup, scoring five goals in qualification matches and setting up all three Japan's goals in the qualification play-off against Iran. In 2001, he helped Japan to reach the final of the Confederations Cup. At the 2002 World Cup, co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, Nakata played in all four matches and scored a goal in the win over Tunisia. Nakata played in all three matches for Japan At the 2006 World Cup. His performance against Croatia earned him a Man of the Match award.

As a professional footballer, Nakata joined Perugia in Italy's Serie A after the 1998 World Cup in France. In his first season in Italy, he scored 10 goals, which was his single-season highest total. After one and a half seasons at Perugia, Nakata moved to Roma for €21.7 million, and helped the team win the Scudetto (Serie A). In the summer of 2001, Nakata signed a four-year deal with Parma for a transfer fee of €28.4 million, a world record payment for an Asian player. Nakata played there for two and a half seasons and won the Coppa Italia in 2001-02 season.

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, he moved to Premiership side Bolton Wanderers on loan. During his season at Bolton, which would be the last of his professional career, he scored once in the league, in a 2–0 win over West Bromwich Albion.

Nakata announced his retirement at age 29 on 3 July 2006, after a ten-year career that included seven seasons in the Italian Serie A and a season in the English Premier League. In March 2004, Pelé named Nakata in his FIFA 100, a list of the top living footballers at the time. Nakata was the only Japanese, and one of only two Asian footballers to be named on the list.

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