Hidetoshi Nakata
Hidetoshi Nakata
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Age: 18
Position: Forward
Country: Argentina
Caps: 6
Goals: 1
Club: Barcelona
Former clubs: Gr |  |
Tuesday, 23, May 2006 12:08
Age: 29
Position: Midfielder
Country: Japan
Caps: 72
Goals: 11
Club: Fiorentina
Previous clubs Bolton (loan), Bologna, Parma, Roma, Perugia, Bellmare Hiratsuka
Estimated Chelsea-target value: £250,000
Worth a read: How I got Japan to the 1998 World Cup - Hidetoshi Nakata, paperback.
English fans finally got a close-up look at Asia's biggest player of the last ten years when a rather weary Hidetoshi Nakata got the call from Sam Allardyce to join his legion of ageing stars at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton on a season-long loan.
Nakata's adventures in Europe seemed to have come to a natural end, with a move back to Japan looking all the more likely. But Big Sam's famed man-management technique rubbed off well on the Japanese midfielder and he responded by producing a series of efficient and clean displays. But competent, adaptable, neat, these are all words you would not normally associate with a player who has cost Italian teams almost £50 million in transfer fees.
Nakata was at his peak in 1998, voted Asia's best player for two years running and taking an average Japanese team to their first ever World Cup finals. To an extent it did not matter that Japan did not progress past the group stage, their national league was in its infancy but still they had produced a player as sublime and graceful as Nakata, whose every move was followed (and copied) by his legions of fans and teenage girls.
The inevitable big money move to Europe followed and Nakata lived up to the hype by scoring ten times in his debut Serie A season with Perugia. It was enough to earn a second transfer to giants Roma, where he won the Scudetto in only his second season. Nakata had been a revelation for Roma, but sadly mostly in terms of merchandise. It was a wholly new phenomenon, an Asian player bringing in huge revenue all by himself - but it was to be to the detriment of Nakata's career. The pressure of being Japan's one single shining light began to tell and his form suffered as a result. At the 2002 World Cup in his home nation, he failed to replicate the elegant performances of four years earlier, with the hosts bowing out in the second round.
His draw was still big enough for him to be banded about twice more in the Italian league however, first with Parma and now Fiorentina. Whether a Bolton team trying to reduce the average age of their squad renew their interest in the playmaker remains to be seen, but Nakata will be desperate to impress on the biggest stage of all this summer. And who knows, the wily old fox and set-piece expert may have a trick of two up his sleeve yet.
Matt Champion.