Characters丨Neon Command Tower——Hidetoshi Nakata

In the winter when he was 8 years old, Hidetoshi Nakata took the first step in his football career from a rural primary school in Japan. At the age of 14, he had already become a player for the Japanese youth team. It has attracted the attention of many clubs in the J-League, and the Japanese media even issued the slogan: "Japanese football finally has a savior." In 1995, 17-year-old Hidetoshi Nakata joined the Hiratsuka Belle Mare team directly after graduating from high school and officially became a professional player.

Under the training of the J-League, Hidetoshi Nakata has made rapid progress. As a midfielder, he has first-class offensive awareness, broad vision, sharp and accurate passing, and good physical confrontation ability. In 1995, Nakata led the Japanese youth team to compete in the World Youth Championship in Qatar and finally reached the quarterfinals. This was the first time that the Japanese team entered the knockout round of the World Youth Championship. However, Hidetoshi Nakata is known to most people at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. At the age of 19, he had become the core of the team and was the youngest player to represent Japan in the Olympics. Facing a team with Ronaldo and Rivaldo In the Brazilian Olympics, Hidetoshi Nakata led his team to defeat the Selecao with one goal.

As the hope of Japanese football, Hidetoshi Nakata made his debut in the national team on May 21, 1997. At that time, Nakata was only 20 years old, and his opponent was the South Korean team. From then on, he became an indispensable figure in the Japanese national team until he hung up his boots. In the 1998 World Cup qualifiers in France, the Japanese team encountered unprecedented pressure because they had never reached the World Cup before, and because if they failed, they could only rely on the advantage of the host country to automatically appear in the 2002 World Cup, which was bound to be criticized. sneer. In the end, the Japanese team went through all the hardships and finally got the chance to compete with Iran for the last qualifying spot with the second place in the group. In this game, Japan won a historic victory 3:2 and won the right to participate in the World Cup for the first time in history. In this game In a battle of great significance to Japanese football, all three goals came from assists by Hidetoshi Nakata.

With his heroic performance in the qualifiers, Hidetoshi Nakata became the youngest Asian Footballer of the Year in 1997 at the age of 20. The 1998 World Cup became the stage for this midfield genius to show his ideals.

In the summer of 1998, Japan stepped onto the stage of the World Cup for the first time. The results of teams participating in the World Cup for the first time are often unsatisfactory, and the same is true for the Japanese team. They lost all three games and only scored one goal from Masashi Nakayama. Despite his flaws, the whole world still saw the huge potential of Hidetoshi Nakata. The 1998 World Cup was also a turning point in Nakata's career. With the appearance of Japanese football in the World Cup, the popularity of football in Japan has soared. As the pride of Japanese football, Hidetoshi Nakata, who looks cool and heroic, has naturally appeared on the front pages of major Japanese media. As the popularity increases, Continuing to climb the ranks, Hidetoshi Nakata attracted the attention of clubs from Europe's top leagues.

In July 1998, Perugia had just successfully upgraded and acquired Hidetoshi Nakata for 2.3 million pounds and signed a four-year contract with him. Nakata also became the second player after the Japanese star Tomoyoshi Miura. Japanese players playing in Serie A. The difference is that Miura was sent to Genoa relying on the sponsorship of a consortium, while Nakata was favored by Perugia purely by virtue of his own strength. It is precisely this difference that led to the "heaven and earth" encounter between the two Japanese stars in Serie A. Miura played for Genoa in the 1994-95 season. He only played a few times as a substitute and scored only one poor goal. Let's take a look at Hidetoshi Nakata's report card - he scored two goals in his first Serie A game, against the heyday of Juventus, and in his career, he scored a total of five times against Juventus. The gate, considering that Nakata is a traditional midfielder, can be regarded as a big pain for the Bianconeri. Throughout the 1998-99 season, the pride of Japanese football contributed 10 league goals in 33 games and was re-elected as the Asian Footballer of the Year. Therefore, Nakata became the first person to win the title of AFC Player of the Year. players.

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 achieve success.

Looking at the travel players in Japan and even throughout Asia, most of them are hanging out in low-level clubs. Winning the league championship has certainly become a luxury. Although Alidai once won the Bundesliga championship with Bayern, this Iranian Stars play a minimal role in the team's championship success. Nakata's success lies in the fact that he is not only a symbol, but also a player who takes responsibility for victory.

In January 2000, Hidetoshi Nakata moved to Roma for US$16 million. During his 18 months in Perugia, jerseys with his name and number were sold for US$10 million. Perugia Jia has also become a tourist attraction for many Japanese tourists. Within three weeks of arriving at the Roma Club, dozens of Japanese reporters began to follow the Roma team's games and training live, and the Japanese flag often appeared at the Rome Olympic Stadium.

Due to the overlapping position with Totti, Nakata's role in the Roma team is not as important as in Perugia, and his playing time is not as much as before. However, Nakata did not sink in. He used his outstanding performance in Perugia The performance was also brought to Roma, where he contributed to Roma winning the Serie A championship for the second time in its history.

In the early morning of May 7, 2001, Beijing time, the 29th round of Serie A had a confrontation that directly affected the championship. At that time, Rome led the league all the way, leading the following 6 points, that is, It is said that as long as Roma gets a draw, they will be closer to their goal. In the 4th minute of the game, Del Piero headed Zidane's pass into the goal. Two minutes later, Inzaghi played the ball and Zidane broke into the penalty area and hit the lower corner with a low shot. Juventus got off to a fantastic start. The turning point of the game came in the 60th minute, when Capello replaced Totti with Hidetoshi Nakata. It was this substitution that opened the door for Roma to win the league title again after 18 years. In the 79th minute, Hidetoshi Nakata scored with a long shot from 30 meters away. When the game was about to end, Hidetoshi Nakata's powerful shot was saved by the Dutch goalkeeper. Montella shot a supplementary shot into the net. With a score of 2:2, Juventus was still 6 points behind Roma. 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 dared to rush back to the national team to participate. He won the Confederations Cup and helped Japan reach the final. Between playing in the Confederations Cup final as captain and witnessing Roma win the championship, he chose the latter. In the end, he returned to Italy and played against Parr in the final round. Before the end of Mara's game, he walked onto the court and experienced Rome's championship battle. The 24-year-old Hidetoshi Nakata won the Serie A championship. He also became the first Asian to win the Serie A championship. This honor is the glory of the entire Asia. The most important thing is that no one dares to ignore the role of Japan's number one star.

The joy of winning the championship did not keep Nakata in Rome. On July 6, 2001, he joined Parma for US$26 million. After signing a four-year contract with the team, he also received the ball. The team's No. 10 jersey. At this point, Hidetoshi Nakata's total transfer value has reached 54 million euros, far behind other Asian players, and became the veritable "Asia's No. 1 Brother" in football at that time.

In Parma, Hidetoshi Nakata became the absolute core of the midfield. It is worth mentioning that in the Coppa Italia final of the 2001/02 season, Hidetoshi Nakata's countdown goal helped Parma beat Juventus to win the Coppa Italia with their precious away goal advantage. It only took Hidetoshi Nakata 2 years to complete the Italian "Grand Slam" honor that many football superstars have failed to complete throughout their careers.

As the host of the 2002 World Cup, it is Hidetoshi Nakata's big wish to help Japan achieve better results. As Japan's offensive commander, Hidetoshi Nakata performed well and the team advanced to the top 16 for the first time. Especially in the last game of the group stage against Tunisia, Nakata's header sealed the victory for the team. This was also the only goal he scored in the World Cup.

In 2004, Hidetoshi Nakata left Parma, and then moved to Bologna and Fiorentina. He was the last club he played for in the Premier League Bolton, but he and coach Allardyce did not like each other.

In the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the Japanese team was eliminated after the group stage, so the game against Brazil became the last battle of Hidetoshi Nakata’s career. Nakata also wrote in "Life is like a journey, and the journey is life." ” recalled it: “On June 22, the last game of my career, when the game ended, my emotions broke out. I suddenly discovered that I love the sport of football so much. When I finally The emotion burst out again as I waved goodbye to the fans in the stands." On July 3 of the same year, Hidetoshi Nakata issued a retirement statement on his personal website, announcing the end of his green career.

After retiring, Hidetoshi Nakata still maintained his unruly character. Hidetoshi Nakata was once criticized by some Japanese media for not singing the Japanese national anthem. Hidetoshi Nakata’s response was more direct: "The melody of Japan's national anthem is really unpleasant. I will never sing it in public in the future." It's really rebellious.

And Hidetoshi Nakata’s bohemian character is a perfect fit for the entertainment industry, which is full of lace. After retiring, Hidetoshi Nakata plunged into this colorful world, and he is still enjoying it like a fish in water to this day. It is particularly important to note that Hidetoshi Nakata is a harvester of actresses in the entertainment industry. Moki Daikoku, Miho Nakayama, Chikako Kobayashi, Milla Jovovich, Maggie Q, Yuki Shibasaki, Rie Miyazawa, etc. are all with Hidetoshi Nakata. There have been rumors of romance, and even famous actresses in the domestic entertainment industry such as Carina Lau, Lin Chi-ling, Michelle Reis, etc. have had scandals with Hidetoshi Nakata to varying degrees.

Last year, 43-year-old Hidetoshi Nakata appeared at Paris Fashion Week to support the Louis Vuitton 2020 autumn and winter show. This is a testament to his influence.

Of course, it is not just in the entertainment industry. After leaving football, Hidetoshi Nakata traveled to more than 100 countries in the world in more than two years, went to Harvard to study, learned to brew sake by himself, and learned to try carpentry and He has other crafts and even became a model for a fashion brand. He has been constantly searching for the meaning after turning 29. After traveling around the world, Hidetoshi Nakata locked his travels in Japan. In 6 and a half years, Hidetoshi Nakata visited 46 prefectures in Japan. The length of the entire journey reached 200,000 kilometers and visited more than 2,000 people and places.

Immediately after learning about the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, a charity football match was organized in Japan. All ticket sales from the match were donated to the Wenchuan disaster area. At the same time, Hidetoshi Nakata also committed suicide He dug out his own pocket and donated a large amount of money and materials to the Wenchuan disaster area. When talking about his motivation for donating to Wenchuan, Hidetoshi Nakata simply said lightly that since the people in that place were affected by natural disasters, and he happened to have some Money, so why not help the people there? It can be said that Nakata really lives a transparent and understanding life.

(Next issue preview: Master of Simplicity—Scholes)