Along with Rui Ramos, he is considered the founder of the rise of Japanese football, the first Asian to be named to the FIFA Ballon d'Or squad for the 21st century, and the holder of Son's previous record for the highest value in Asia. He is the "Asian Little Shell", Hidetoshi Nakata.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="123" > young fame</h1>
In the winter of the year he was 8 years old, Nakata took the first step in his football career from a rural elementary school in Japan, and at the age of 14, he had become a player in the Japanese youth team, and when he did not graduate from high school, he was already concerned by many clubs in the J League, and the Japanese media even issued the slogan: "Japanese football finally has a savior". In 1995, at the age of 17, Hidetoshi Nakata joined hiratsuka Belmar directly after graduating from high school and officially became a professional player.
Under the training of the J League, Nakata Hidetoshi has made rapid progress, and he has a first-class offensive consciousness as a front, and he has a wide field of vision, passing is sharp and precise, and his physical confrontation ability is also good. In 1995, Nakata led the Japanese youth team to the Qatar World Championships, and finally reached the quarterfinals, which was the first time that the Japanese team had reached the knockout round of the final round of the World Youth Championship. However, Nakata Hideju is known to most people at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, when he was 19 years old and the youngest player to represent Japan in the Olympic Games, facing the Brazilian Olympic Team with Ronaldo and Rivaldo, Nakata Led the team to a one-goal victory over the Samba Team.
As a hope for Japanese football, Nakata made his debut for the national team on May 21, 1997, when Nakata was only 20 years old and played against South Korea. Since then, he has become an indispensable figure in the Japanese national team until he hangs up his boots. In the 1998 Fifa World Cup qualifiers in France, the Japanese team encountered unprecedented pressure, because they had never reached the World Cup before, and because once the horse lost its front hoof, they could only rely on the host advantage to automatically appear in the 2002 World Cup, which was bound to be ridiculed. In the end, japan went through hardships and finally won the last qualifying spot with Iran with the second in the group, in which Japan won a historic 3:2 victory and the right to participate in the World Cup for the first time in history, and in this battle of great significance to Japanese football, all three goals came from the assist of Hidetoshi Nakata.
With his brave performance in qualifiers, in 1997, at the age of 20, Hidetoshi Nakata became the youngest Asian footballer of the year, and the 1998 World Cup became the ideal stage for the midfield talent to show his ideals.
In the summer of 1998, Japan made its first appearance on the Stage of the World Cup, and the results of the teams participating in the World Cup for the first time were often unsatisfactory, as were the Japanese team. They lost all three games, but Yashi Nakayama scored a goal. Flawed, the world still sees the huge potential in Nakata Hidetoshi, and the 1998 World Cup is also a turning point in Nakata's career. With the appearance of Japanese football in the World Cup, the popularity of domestic football in Japan soared, and as the pride of Japanese football, Nakata Hidetoshi also naturally appeared on the front page of Japan's major media, and as the popularity continued to rise, Nakata Hidetoshi attracted the attention of clubs from the top leagues in Europe.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="121" > the Apennines</h1>
In July 1998, Perugia had just been successfully promoted, and he bought Hidetoshi Nakata for £2.3 million and signed a four-year contract with him, and Nakata became the second Japanese player to play in Serie A after Japanese star Chira Miura. The difference is that Miura was sent to Genoa by relying on the sponsorship of the consortium, and Nakata was favored by Perugia entirely by virtue of his own strength, which is precisely this difference that led to the encounter between the two Japanese stars in Serie A. Miura played for Genoa in the 94-95 season, only playing as a few substitutes, scoring only one goal. Let's take a look at Nakata Hidetoshi's report card - he scored two goals in his first Serie A game against Juventus, and in his career, he has broken through Juve's gate five times in total, considering that Nakata is a traditional midfielder, so he is a big sufferer for the Bianconeri. Throughout the 98-99 season, the pride of Japanese football contributed 10 league goals in 33 games and was re-elected Asian Footballer of the Year that year, making Nakata the first player to win the AFC Player of the Year title. Therefore, Asian fans believe that although Nakata is not the first Asian player to land in Serie A, he is definitely the first Asian player to succeed.
Traveling players throughout Japan and even across Asia are mostly in lower clubs, and winning the league title is certainly a luxury, and although Ali Dei has won the Bundesliga with Bayern, the Iranian star has played little role in the team's victory. Nakata's success lies in the fact that he is not only a symbol, but a player who takes responsibility for victory.
In January 2000, Nakata Hidetoshi transferred to Rome for $16 million, and in the 18 months of Perugia, the jersey with his name and number sold for $10 million, perugia has become a popular destination for many Japanese tourists, and in the three weeks of coming to the Club of Rome, dozens of Japanese journalists began to pay attention to the games and training of the Roma team, and the Japanese flag was often displayed at the Olympic Stadium in Rome.
Due to the overlap with Totti's position, Nakata's role in Roma is not as important as in Perugia, and the playing time is not as much as before, but Nakata did not sink, and he also brought his outstanding performance in Perugia to Rome, contributing to the second time in The history of Roma to win the Serie A title.
In the early morning of May 7, 2001 Beijing time, the 29th round of serie A had a confrontation that directly affected the ownership of the champion, when the Roma league led the way, leading by 6 points, that is, Roma only needed to win a draw closer to the goal. In the 4th minute of the match, Piero pushed Zidane's pass into the net. Two minutes later, big Inzaghi made the ball and Zidane burst into the box with a low shot into the bottom corner of the goal, and Juve made a fantastic start. The turning point of the game came in the 60th minute, when Capello replaced Totti with Hidetoshi Nakata, who opened the door to victory for Roma's second league title after a gap of 18 years. In the 79th minute, Nakata Hidetoshi scored from 30 meters away, and towards the end of the game, Nakata's powerful shot was saved by the Dutch goalkeeper, Montella made up for the net, and the 2-2 score made Juve still 6 points behind Roma, and roma coach Capello said after the game: "I replaced Totti with Nakata because in my mind they are equally important. ”
When Serie A came to an end, Nakata also dared to rush back to the national team to participate in the Confederations Cup to help Japan reach the final final, and between playing as captain in the Confederations Cup final and witnessing Roma win the title, he chose the latter, and finally he returned to Italy and walked onto the field before the end of the final round against Palma, experiencing the battle for Roma to win the championship. The 24-year-old Hidetoshi Nakata, who won the Serie A title, also became the first Asian to win a Serie A title, an honor for the whole of Asia, and most importantly no one dared to ignore the role of Japan's number one star.
The joy of winning the title did not leave Nakata at Roma, and on July 6, 2001, he joined Parma for $26 million, and he also received the team's number 10 shirt after signing a four-year contract with the team. At this point, nakata Hideto's total transfer value has reached 54 million euros, far away from other Asian players, becoming a veritable "Asian brother" in football at that time.
In Parma, Hidetoshi Nakata became the absolute midfielder core. It is worth mentioning that the 2001/02 Coppa Italia final was again a second-reading goal by Hidetoshi Nakata, helping Parma to win the Coppa Italia with a valuable away goal advantage. And Hidetoshi Nakata also took only 2 years to complete the Italian "Grand Slam" award that many football superstars have not completed in their entire careers.
As the host of the 2002 World Cup, helping Japan achieve better results is a big wish of Hidetoshi Nakata. As Japan's offensive commander, Hidetoshi Nakata played well and the team advanced to the round of 16 for the first time. In particular, in the final match of the group stage against Tunisia, Nakata's header sealed the win for the team, which was the only goal he scored in the World Cup.
In 2004, Hidetoshi Nakata left Parma and then traveled between Bologna and Fiorentina, the last club Bolton played for in the Premier League, but he and manager Allardyce were not cold.
At the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Japan was eliminated after the group stage, so the match against Brazil became the last battle of Nakata's career, and Nakata also recalled it in "Life is Like a Journey, Journey is Life": "On June 22, the last battle of my career, when the game ended, my feelings exploded, I suddenly found that I loved football so much, and when I finally waved goodbye to the fans in the stands, this emotion broke out again." On July 3 of the same year, Hidetoshi Nakata published a retirement statement on his personal website, announcing the end of his green career.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="90" > retired, wonderful elsewhere</h1>
After retiring from the army, Nakata Hidetoshi still maintained his untamed personality, Nakata Hidetoshi was once accused by some Japanese media for not singing the Japanese national anthem, and Nakata Hidetoshi's response was more direct: "The melody of the Japanese national anthem is really not good, and I will not sing in public in the future." "It's really rebellious.
And Nakata Hidetoshi's bohemian personality just fits perfectly with the continuous entertainment circle of lace, and after retiring, Nakata Hidetoshi plunged into this flower world, and to this day he is still like a fish, enjoying it. In particular, it should be noted that Nakata Hidetoshi is called an actress harvester in the entertainment industry, and Daikuro Moji, Miho Nakayama, Chikako Kobayashi, Mira Jovovich, MaggieQ, Shibasaki Yuki, Riki Miyazawa, etc. have all had a relationship with Hidetoshi Nakata, and even famous actresses in the domestic entertainment industry such as Liu Jialing, Lin Chiling, and Li Jiaxin have also had scandals with HidetoShi Nakata to varying degrees.
Group photo with Zhao Wei
Last year, 43-year-old Hidetoshi Nakata made his debut at Paris Fashion Week to help Louis Vuitton's Fall/Winter 2020 show. This is enough to prove his influence.
Of course, not only in the entertainment industry, after leaving football, Nakata Hideshou traveled to more than 100 countries in the world for more than two years, went to Harvard to study, to learn to brew sake, to learn to try carpentry and other crafts, and even became a model for fashion brands, he has been constantly looking for meaning after the age of 29. After traveling around the world, Nakata Hidetoshi locked his own trip to japan, and in 6 and a half years, Nakata Hidetoshi traveled through 46 prefectures in Japan, the length of the journey reached 200,000 kilometers, and visited more than 2,000 people and places.
In 2008, the first time after learning about the Wenchuan earthquake, he organized a charity football match in Japan, all the ticket income from the game was donated to the Wenchuan disaster area, at the same time, Nakata Hideshou also donated a large amount of money and a large amount of materials to the Wenchuan disaster area at his own expense, when talking about his motivation for donating to Wenchuan, Nakata Hideshou only lightly said that since the people in that place were affected by natural disasters, and they just had money in their hands, why couldn't they help the people there? It can be said that Nakata really lives through and understands.
(Next issue preview: The Master of Simplicity - Scholes)