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Team Index Albirex Niigata Kashima Antlers Omiya Ardija Avispa Fukuoka Shonan Bellmare Cerezo Osaka Consadole Sapporo Ehime FC Kawasaki Frontale Gamba Osaka Nagoya Grampus Gifu FC Mito Hollyhock JEF United Jubilo Iwata Yokohama Marinos Montedio Yamagata Urawa Reds Kashiwa Reysol Roasso Kumamoto Sagan Tosu Sanfrecce Hiroshima Kyoto Sanga Shimizu S-Pulse Thespa Kusatsu FC Tokyo Oita Trinita Vegalta Sendai Ventforet Kofu Tokyo Verdy Vissel Kobe Tokushima Vortis Yokohama FC | |
Nakata earned a reputation as a very stable and strong dribbler, who can shield the ball well and create good opportunities for teammates. He also has a good scoring touch when given the opportunity. However, his main asset was always his keen understanding of the game, and a natural instinct for the way that plays develop. These skills allowed him to place one-touch passes with perfection, ripping apart defences and creating opportunities for his teammates. Following his brilliant debut season at Perugia, Nakata was traded to AS Roma. After a year in which he earned a championship medal, as Roma won the scudetto, but spent most of his time on the bench, Nakata asked to be traded at the end of the 2000-01 season. Thereafter, Nakata spent the better part of five years wandering from one club to another. Nakata roamed the Italian landscape, sometimes successfully, and sometimes less so, playing at a total of five Serie A clubs and being linked, at one time or another, to virtually every team in the country. Following his early breakthrough success at Perugia, he was never again able to establish himself as an integral part of a team. Some would say that the good fortune he enjoyed early in his career deserted him, and he found himself in positions where it was difficult for him to "play to his strengths". This is surely a part of the story. From the financial scandals at Parmalat to the premature departure of coach Mazzone (a strong proponent) from Bologna just after Nakata moved there, the breaks did not fall his way and this is one of the reasons why he failed to impress in his later years. But it is equally clear that some other factors are at work as well. For one thing, as the years passed Nakata has begun to look increasingly "tired", both in terms of his play on the pitch and his approach to his footballing career.. Though he still was able turn in a dominant performance from time to time, suggesting that his basic skills were still intact, in his later years he did not really demonstrate the sort of fire, energy and inspiration needed to impress fans in Europe. In our view, one factor that should be considered is the nature of Nakata's abilities. Though often touted as "the best player Japan has produced", a careful analysis of his playing career does not support this accolade. Nakata was strong on the ball, but not a particularly clever dribbler. His passing could be visionary at times, but even though he might spot openings that few others can see, he often failed to find the target. His shots could get the job done, but they were neither powerful nor unusually accurate. And above all, though he could fire off a pass or a shot in the blink of an eye, in a footrace, he was downright slow. The one quality which allowed him to play at the top level, and which has never been questioned by anyone who saw him play, was his remarkable understanding of the game -- an ability to see the "flow" of a match and understand where he needed to be, or where the ball should go. In this respect, Nakata was nothing less than a genius. There has never been anyone in Japan -- player or coach -- who had such a thorough technical appreciation for the game. And there is no question that he will make a brilliant coach if he should ever choose to take up that career. But as he got older, one began to sense that this remarkable "vision" is no longer enough to fully offset physical skills which, at least in Europe, were only a shade above mediocrity. In mid-2005, with his career in Italy looking more and more like a dead end, Nakata accepted a one-year load agreement at Bolton Wanderers. After moving to England, he had a few solid performances and there was some indication that he might be able to rediscover the motivation and challenges needed to revive his career. But this proved to be just a false dawn. In fact, Nakata was already considering when to put an end to his playing career, having decided that he had accomplished just about all he ever hoped to achieve on the pitch, and not wanting to diminish his legacy by playing on, now that he was clearly on the downward slope of his career. Though still relatively young and in good physical shape, Nakata's wide-ranging interests, including media production and coaching, were already assuming greater importance in his life than football. He had a lucrative Internet and media-related business, a weekly TV show on a satellite TV channel in Japan, and dozens of offers from corporations looking to use his name to promote everything from automobiles to zippers. Even before Japan crashed out of the 2006 World Cup, it was apparent that football was not the top priority in his life. So when he announced in July 2006 that he was retiring from football at the age of 29, the news was no surprise to those who had been following his career closely. Naturally Nakata will always be a key figure for Japanese football fans, and it seems likely that he will be asked to get involved in either coaching of football administration one of these days. But for now, Nakata is travelling the world and enjoying the wide vistas and expansive possibilities that were always his goal. Football was only a means to an end, and once the end was achieved, he had no difficulty leaving football behind. But for a few years, at least, he certainly gave us an exciting show.
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