Miura joins Portuguese League side Olivirens.
After bidding farewell to Japan's fourth division, Miura, who will turn 56 at the end of this month, still has no plans to say goodbye to football.
Recently, the veteran, who has played for 38 seasons, announced that he joined Portuguese League team Olivelens as a player, starting the second journey of his life.
However, even if Miura has many aura blessings, his fitness and condition have long been insufficient to cope with high-intensity professional football, and he has always been accompanied by controversy:
The meagre amount of playing time, sponsors and media seem to confirm a not-so-pleasant fact that Miura loves not only football, but also records and show.
Miura's joining the Portuguese League is more of a business activity.
The parent company matches, and the satellite team bridges
Playing football in Portugal is Miura's fifth stay.
In 1986, at the age of 19, he signed his first professional contract with Brazilian giants Santos, and it was here that he won the reputation of "Oriental Double Gunner" and became one of the prototype characters of various football anime and film and television dramas.
But what is really known to old fans is that Miura became the first Japanese player in the history of Serie A. In 1994, Miura joined Genoa on loan, at a time when Serie A was still at the peak of the "mini-World Cup".
Despite the strong support of Japanese companies, Miura played very little in the first half of the season, and it was not until the end of the season that the team's relegation was inevitable, that he got the opportunity to play, and scored the only goal of his Serie A career in the "lighthouse derby" against Sampdoria.
Since then, Miura has also briefly played for Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia and Sydney FC in Australia, but Miura is already a veteran in his thirties.
Miura is constantly breaking football records.
Just like when he joined Serie A before, Miura Chira stayed in the ocean this time, and Miura is also inseparable from the support of the Japanese foundation.
Club Olivirens has a distinct Japanese background, and since last year it has been controlled by the Onodera Group, the parent company of Yokohama FC.
In more layman's terms, Miura was loaned to Yokohama FC's satellite club.
Last season, Orens was promoted to the Portuguese Second Division as runners-up in the third division, and the team's goal for the new season is clearly relegation. This also means that regardless of whether the team completes its goal ahead of schedule or relegates to the third division reconstruction, Miura is expected to get sporadic appearances in the second half of the first half, thus continuing to set the record for the oldest attendance of a Japanese and even Asian player.
Orlens boss Pedro Miguel said the team is still willing to break into Portugal's top flight, but given the current number of newcomers, a veteran with experience like Miura is needed to help the team, and he will still play the role of striker.
Records and controversies follow
On October 30 last year, in the 27th round of the JFL League (fourth division) in Japan, Suzuka scorer defeated Hirakata Aiao 3-1, in which substitute Miura scored a penalty to set the JFL league record for the oldest appearance and goal at the age of 55 years and 246 days.
After the goal, he "talked about the boy's madness" and danced on the sideline with a group of teammates who could be his children and grandchildren.
In this small team that previously had almost zero presence, Miura came off the bench early in the season but did not make the squad in many games in the mid-season, but recently he has made nine consecutive substitute appearances, each of which can set his record for the oldest appearance.
This goal is also the second time since 2017 that Miura has scored in an official match for the first time in five years and seven months.
However, behind the crazy record brushing is the help of "own family": Suzuka's head coach and general manager is Yasunen Miura, who is Miura Chira's own brother, and he is also the one who asked Suzuka to loan Miura Chira from Yokohama FC in J2.
Miura Chira attends an event in Grand Paris.
Because Miura Chira can not only serve as a role model for the players on and off the field, his arrival will also allow the club to receive a lot of commercial sponsorship.
In order to let the "condescending" Miura Chira play to the fullest, Suzuka can be described as painstaking: in the first game of the season last March, the news of Miura Chira's start continued to ferment a week before the game, the team produced a large number of Miura Tomori-themed support banners and Tifo, and even when Miura entered the game before the game, it was cheered on and photographed by fanatical fans, and even the sand on the side of the stadium stands attracted a large number of fans to sit.
In the middle of the season, the Suzuka team was fined 5 million yen (about 260,000 yuan) by the Japan Football Association for allegedly playing negatively, but this sudden change did not affect Miura's attendance.
Throughout the season, Miura maintained the tradition of playing at the point of each round, and the few penalties the team received were given to him.
Of course, Miura has had no shortage of regrets this season, as he missed out on the first round of the Emperor's Cup due to a muscle injury, thus missing out on the record for the oldest appearance he set two years ago.
Tomora Miura and Neymar take a group photo.
Binding throughout, no return?
As a living fossil of the football world, Miura, who officially debuted as early as 1986, is even older than Messi's age. Today, he is already a grandfather-level player, and he is asked at the end of almost every season when he will retire.
But Miura always replied with the standard answer of a routine: "I give it my all every day, I want to challenge myself and see how long I can last." ”
It is true that Miura's love for football has never been doubted, but behind his persistence year after year is the high degree of binding of his personal brand to sponsors and media.
"King Miura is training independently in Osaka, the temperature is only 10°C, but he is the only one wearing shorts among his teammates wearing long sleeves and long pants."
Before the start of the J2 League last year, when Yokohama FC's official social media reported on the team's spiritual leader, in addition to the respectful "King" prefix, the words were also full of chicken soup.
But a striking fact is that the previous season, Miura only played one minute in the J1 league, but this did not prevent everyone from continuing to treat each other with courtesy.
Still taking Miura's foothold Suzuka last season as an example, they carefully selected the official announcement of Miura's joining at 11:11 on January 11 last year, without him, just because Miura's favorite number in his career is 11.
Tomoya Miura and Hidetoshi Nakata (left) watch the World Cup in Qatar.
Another perennial theme of Miura's professionalism is undoubtedly that since 2004, he has traveled to Guam every year during the winter break for special training, bringing personal trainers, physiotherapists and cooks at his own expense.
And the meticulous schedule from 5:30 a.m. to 21 o'clock, as well as the physical training subjects that are definitely not easy, make people marvel at the extreme self-discipline of this veteran.
After 19 years of intensive training, Miura himself gave the most inspirational golden sentence: "This is a resort, but I have never seen the sea of Guam." ”
But alongside the special training were the flocks of journalists, documentary videographers and Miura's training uniform, which was emblazoned with the sponsor's logo and almost rivaled that of an F1 driver.
Although Miura's salary at the club at that time was already 1/5 of his peak era, he still had four endorsement contracts of nearly 100 million yuan, and he was still a time-tested cash cow.
In addition, aside from the deep integration with sponsors and media, Miura's symbolism also goes beyond sports.
As one of the most aging countries in the world, the elderly have become an "important fighting force" to make up for the shortage of social labor. Miura Chira, who is about to be 56 years old, Miyazaki Hayao, who is still in his eighties, and Jiro Ono, the "god of sushi", have become the best spokespersons for "old and strong".
Under the club salary system of the annual merit sequence system, Miura, who is a senior in the year, can be recorded in the account every year, which is also an incentive for the elderly who are re-employed.
With the blessing of various factors, Miura not only cannot retire, but also continues to challenge the limit of "reverse growth". As for when to say goodbye to football, perhaps, as he inadvertently said - "until the last moment of life".