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Nozomu Hiroyama's career followed a rather unusual path . He played for only a few years in the J.League, and had only modest success, but he began to make a name for himself after receiving a one-year transfer to Paraguay. Hiroyama performed relatively well the South American leagues, and was the first Japanese ever to score a goal in a Libertadores Cup match, marking a milestone of sorts. He scored several times in league matches for his club, Cerro Porteno, and eventually even won a call-up to the national team. However, after his year at Cerro Porteno, Hiroyama wanted to continue to try his luck overseas. Unfortunately his club, JEF United, wanted to force him to return to Japan, and they played hardball to force him to do so. The team refused to release him to any other team, and even after his contract with JEF expired, they continued to insist on a transfer fee before they would let him play for another club. This destroyed Hiroyama's chances to play in Brazil, since none of the clubs that were interested in him were willing to take on the J.League in legal action to win the rights to sign him. But after being out of contract to JEF for over a year, Hiroyama convinced Braga, of Portugal, to sign him, accepting a modest salary in return for the club's assistance in breaking the JEF stranglehold on his career. Thanks to this signing, Hiroyama has finally won the battle, since JEF -- and more importantly, the J.League -- were reluctant to press their claim for a transfer fee from the Portuguese club for a player who had no legal obligations to JEF whatsoever. After a year in Portugal, where he made some useful contributious off the bench but never won a starting spot, Hiroyama was signed on a free transfer by Montpellier Herault Sporting Club, making him the first Japanese player to play in the French first division. Once again, though, he failed to play well enough to earn regular playing time, and by the end of the season, Montpellier decided let him go. Considering the history of friction with both JEF United and the league in general, Hiroyama was not exactly a popular individual back in Japan. As far as fans are concerned he is ancient history, and despite his several years of experience overseas, he has not shown any signs that he has the skill to claim a starting spot even in the J2. Only after an extended round of knocking on doors did he finally convince Tokyo Verdy to give him a chance to show his abilities, though ever since joinging Verdy he has been placed in the role of a squad player, snatching breif moments of time as a substitute, and not really impressing. Most likely, Hiroyama will follow Jean-Marc Bosman into posterity as a person more famous for his legal battles than his performances on the football pitch.
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