Football News

Japan is one of the biggest soccer nations in the Asian federation, winning the AFC Asian Cup four times.

Samurai Blue currently remains one of the best teams on the continent, as they are one of the only teams from Asia heading to Qatar in November 2022 for the FIFA World Cup.

The end-of-career World Cup stage represents an opportunity for some to cement their legacies, and for others to kick-start their soccer history.

Yasuhito Endo

• Caps: 152
• Goals: 15
• Endo, Japan’s all-time leading scorer, has spent his entire club career in his homeland.

After playing for Yokohama Flugels and Kyoto Purple Sanga, the player has been affiliated with Gamba Osaka since 2001. Endo has been on the J-League season team ten times.

Endo, a two-time Asian Cup champion in 2004 and 2007, also scored one of the goals in the victory over Denmark in the 2010 World Cup.

Endo is one of the greats of the modern era, a mainstay for Samurai Blue from 2002 to 2015.

Hidetoshi Nakata

• Caps: 77
• Goals: 11
• Hidetoshi Nakata scored almost half of his national team’s goals in the 1998 World Cup. His five goals helped Japan win its first-ever World Cup.

That same year, Nakata was nominated for the Golden Ball, and he was nominated for it twice more in his career, as well as competing for FIFA’s Footballer of the Year four times.

The Japanese playmaker was also included in Pele’s list of the 100 best soccer players of the 20th century.

Nakata had his biggest impact on European soccer in Italy, winning Serie A with AS Roma and beating Juventus while working at Parma to win the Coppa Italia.

Nakata spent his last football season on loan at Bolton Wanderers in the Premier League.

He retired after it ended because he had fallen out of love with the game and felt it was dominated by money rather than a true love of the sport.

Shinji Kagawa

• Caps: 97
• Goals: 31
• Shinji Kagawa was crucial to Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund, which won the Bundesliga twice. He was a magical, creative player. He was tireless and was an invaluable asset on and off the field.

Kagawa scored a goal and created another in his last appearance for Dortmund against Bayern when they won the DFB Pokal.

Kagawa won the Premier League after his move to Manchester United, but ultimately his move to England was a failure and he was never able to regain the level of his playing days at Dortmund.

Kazuyoshi Miura

• Caps: 89
• Goals: 55
• Miura, who was born in 1967, is still playing professional soccer at age 47. He leads the attack on loan at the Suzuka Point Getters club in the Japanese Football League.

The goalkeeping abilities Miura demonstrated early in his career prompted Genoa to sign him in Italy in 1994, making him the first Japanese soccer player to play in Serie A.

Although he failed to adapt in Europe, he is an icon of Japanese soccer.

The fact that he remains a part of the game into his fifties is amazing – and his ability to threaten opposing defenses is remarkable.

Kunishige Kamamoto

• Caps: 84
• Goals: 80
• It would be impossible for Kunishige Kamamoto not to top the list, having one of the greatest international goal records in the world, not just for Japan.

Kamamoto spent his entire career at Yanmar Diesel. In his 17 years with the club, the center forward scored more than 250 goals.