At 53, the world’s oldest professional football player extends his contract with Yokohama FC

A true legend in his home country of Japan, Kazuyoshi Miura extended on Monday his contract with his club in Yokohama. He vowed to play until he is 60 years old.

His name is Kazuyoshi Miura. He is Japanese and a professional footballer with Yokohama FC in the J-League, the Japanese first division. He plays forward. He is said to be as skilful and efficient with his right foot as with his left. He counts 89 selections in the Japanese national team. The last one was in the early 2000s. Because, it is a small important detail, Kazuyoshi Miura is 53 years old. He will celebrate his 54th spring at the end of February.

This Monday at midday, he extended his contract for one year with Yokohama FC, a club he has been playing with for 15 years. Kazuyoshi Miura is the world’s oldest active professional player. “I have not had a satisfactory last season, the world football dean admitted when signing the extension. But I felt the joy of playing football at a time when the world was facing a difficult situation due to the Covid epidemic. My ambition and enthusiasm for football is growing. I will work hard every day, aiming to contribute to the team’s victory this season by playing as many matches as possible.”

Already a professional at the birth of Messi

With this new contract, Miura is preparing to play in the 36th season of a professional career that began in 1986, one year before the birth of Lionel Messi, one of the most famous professional football player in the world supported by a lot of fans in front of the TV, in the stadiums and even when it is about to place bets on him. By the way, many international bookmakers offer predictions on Messi’s games and add interesting odds on his performances. Beware, Kazuyoshi Miura is not a gadget player, just good for his club to have a trace in the record book. In Japan, the 50-year-old is a star nicknamed “King Kazu”. The Japanese are convinced that he is the one who inspired the manga character “Captain Tsubasa” known in France as “Olive and Tom”. This is not true since the manga was born before Miura was known but the Japanese citizens do not want to go overboard.

Four times Japanese champion in the mid-1990s, Miura was elected “Asian player of the year in 1993”. Like the Brazilian “Ballon d’Or 1999” Rivaldo, he also has the rare distinction of having played for a club on four continents: Asia, America, Europe and Oceania. The brave 50-year-old began his career in Brazil by playing for Santos, the club dear to King Pele. In Europe, in the second half of the 1990s, the globe-trotting footballer played for Genoa in Italy and Zagreb in Croatia, adding a Croatian championship to his list of honours. Before landing his bundle in Yokohama in 2005, the Japanese player also did a stint with FC Sydney in Australia.

In conflict with the coach, he missed out on the 1998 World Cup

In the national team, without a quarrel with the coach at the time, he should have played in the World Cup in France in 1998. In 89 selections, he nevertheless scored 55 goals and won the Asian Cup in 1992.

Miura holds another longevity record: in 2017, he became the oldest professional goalscorer in history, overtaking England’s Stanley Matthews at the time. At that time, Miura was 50 years and 14 days old and his record still stands. At his advanced age, Miura, still as sharp as a young man, certainly doesn’t run as fast as he used to. His back-kick in front of goal is less effective. He doesn’t play 90 minutes anymore and besides, he only played 4 full games last season in the J-League. But at the time of his signature, he swore to play until 2027. Until his 60th birthday. Enduring!

Used sources for information:

• Datas about the international bookmarkers’ offers with Betiton
• Miura extended his contract with Yokohama FC on APNews