Player Profile : Hidetoshi Nakata

Hidetoshi Nakata is the best known Japanese football player in the World.

He was born on Jan 22 1977 in Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture in Japan and started playing the game from 8 years old. He represented his junior high school team in the prefecture football competition and also represented the Japan under-15 football team.

He later joined the Narasaki High School soccer team and also played in the National High School championships. He continued his progress by being called up to the Under-17 national team who were ranked as top as 8 in the World.

When he finished high school he had a chance to either go to University or continue is football education at a football club. Not surprisingly he chose to continue is football education and he joined Bellmare Hiratsuka (Later Shonan Bellmare) which was one of the most strong teams having finished second in the second stage of the J-League in 1994.

In 1996, 19 year old Hidetoshi Nakata was chose to participate in the U-23 squad that went on to book their place in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta USA. His contributions at the Olympic Games enabled Japan to beat Brazil 1-0.

When Nakata arrived at the 1998 World Cup Finals in France he was already a household name and his performances made a lot of European Clubs seek his employment.

He ended up signing for AC Perugia for 2 million pounds. His debut was historically scoring twice for his team only to still lose 4-3 to Juventus. He spent a total of one and a half years with AC Perugia before AS Roma snapped him up.

At AS Roma even though he spent a lot of time on the bench, he soon proved his worth by standing in for Francesco Totti and scoring important goals for his team. AS Roma became champions and Nakata became the first Japanese person to win the Seria A title.

His football career took another twist when he was signed by AC Parma for a record 25 million dollars. However, his time at the club was not too enjoyable as Parma found were always a mid-table team at their best. They went through three managers and he was benched for most of the time.

He also had brief spells with Bologna on loan in 2004 before joining Fiorentina for the 2004-2005 season.

After playing for 5 different Italian teams, he joined Bolton Wanderers on loan in August 2005. Nakata has adapted well to the pace and physicality of the English Premier League, forcing his way into contention for a regular starting place with Wanderers, and looks set to become one of manager Sam Allardyce’s finer signings.

Away from football, Nakata is adored in his native Japan and has a huge following around the world. In fact, he is what you can call the ‘David Beckham of Asian Football’. He has sponsorship deals with the likes of CANON, Coca-Cola, NIKE, TOYOTA, SKY Perfect TV! and a host of other companies.

His varied experience will be vital to the Japanese team if they are going to make any waves at the World Cup but he is a man for the big occasion and I see him linking the play between Japanese attack and strike force.