The Japanese "old man" Miura arrives in Portugal to start a new football challenge
Japanese Kazuyoshi Miura continues to search for new football challenges, despite his celebration later this month of his fifty-sixth birthday, by joining on loan to Oliverense, who plays in the Portuguese second division.
Miura, who is called "King Kazuo" in his country, began his professional career in 1986 with Brazilian club Santos, and has played 37 seasons as a professional player so far.
By moving to the Portuguese league, Miura will experience playing in the sixth country after Brazil, Japan, Italy, Croatia and Australia.
He played last season in the ranks of the local Suzuka Point Jetters club, which plays in the fourth division, and is supervised by his older brother Yasutoshi, on loan from Yokohama FC.
The parent company of Yokohama Football Club acquired the majority stake in Oliverense in November.
"Although it's a new place for me, I will do my best to show everyone the quality of play I've been known for," Miura said, according to a Yokohama statement.
Miura scored two goals, one from a penalty kick and the other with a header, in 18 matches he played last season with Suzuka, who finished ninth in the fourth division standings.
Miura will play in Oliverense alongside Christian Kindiji Wagasuma Ferreira, a Brazilian of Japanese origin who was nicknamed Kazuo when he was a young player after Miura, who celebrates his 56th birthday on the 26th of this year and wants to continue playing until the age of sixty.
In 2020, Miura became the oldest Japanese player in the first division in history at the age of 53 years and nine months, and before that in 2017 he became the oldest player to score in a professional match, surpassing English legend Stanley Matthews.
In September 2020, he also became the oldest player to start a Serie A match.
Miura, who received his training in Brazil since he was fifteen years old, appeared for the first time with Santos in 1986, before joining other Brazilian clubs, including Palmeiras.
The player returned to Japan in 1990 to defend the colors of the Yomiuri club, which later became Verdy Kawasaki, and won four league titles from 1991 to 1994. The following season he moved to Italian Genoa on loan.
Despite scoring 55 goals in 89 international matches with the Japanese national team between 1990 and 2000, Miura was not selected for the 1998 World Cup squad in France due to a dispute with the coach, which is the biggest disappointment in his football career.
He was one of the most popular soccer players in Asia in the 1990s, and he helped put the game in Japan on the map when the J-League was launched in 1993.
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