Long live the King - really long: Why Japanese footballer Miura Kazuyoshi, 56, still keeps playing
Now in his fifth overseas stop in Portugal, the Japanese football royalty has no intention of hanging up his boots anytime soon despite age setting in.
Football
On 26 February, Japanese football legend Miura Kazuyoshi turned 56. That’s right, fifty six.
Though if you ask the man, the myth himself, he will tell you he feels like he’s in his 60s.
“I feel like I’m 65,” Miura said on his birthday during a remote press conference from Portugal, where he currently plays for second-division side Oliveirense.
“When I moved to Brazil at 15, I thought people in their 50s, 60s were granddads. But now that I’m at that age, there’s a part of me refusing to accept that I’m an old man.
“I was in the lift other day carrying a ball, and a kid, probably two, three years old with his dad walks in. And the dad tells the kid, ‘Why don’t you ask granddaddy here to pass you the ball?’
“So I must look old, which to me was a bit shocking. I’m officially a granddad. I probably look 70 to some.”
Be it 50s, 60s, 70s - not many in the age groups can call themselves a professional footballer as Miura does.
The former national-team standout who carried the J.League during its early days, remains, and will always be, one of Japan’s most popular athletes of all-time.
And it is not purely because he is from a country where seniority and longevity are highly held values. Miura is genuinely beloved by the public, similar to the way baseball’s Ohtani Shohei is.
Before the likes of Mitoma Kaoru, Kubo Takefusa, Ono Shinji, and Nakata Hidetoshi, there was Miura, who was Japan’s first true hero in the sport. It’s why he’s known as “King Kazu,” and his legacy will long live on.
Portugal is Miura’s fifth overseas destination after Brazil, Italy, Croatia, and Australia, and is in his 38th professional season. Most of his teammates weren't alive when he started playing as a pro for Brazil's Santos.
Miura made his most recent switch, from Suzuka Point Getters of the Japan Football League - the de facto fourth tier in the Japanese football pyramid - to Oliveirense, fully aware of the challenges that lie ahead.
He has yet to appear for the Liga Portugal 2 club, who are in 12th place, irrelevant at either end of the table.
“It’s going to be very tough for me personally but I hope I can make the bench, get in the game as long as possible. I want to play to win, help us win, in anyway I can. That’s my aim through June.
“Not a whole lot has changed but with every birthday I celebrate with you guys, my desire to be out on the pitch gets stronger. I’m 56, grateful to be playing, and feel like I have to keep working.”
There’s no question Miura is a step or two or three or four behind the player he used to be, who bagged 55 goals in 89 international games for his country.
The Shizuoka Prefecture native is the world’s oldest goalscorer of a major league competition. Miura has even dabbled in futsal, being selected to the FIFA Futsal World Cup.
Just about the only thing he hasn’t done in his career spanning four decades is play at a FIFA World Cup, his omission from the France 1998 squad turning into a national controversy.
It's undeniable that Miura’s loan deal to Oliveirense has been aided by the fact that the team’s Japanese owners also own the J.League club, Yokohama FC, with whom he is contracted.
But no one in Japan is laughing at Miura. He’s not doing any of this for the attention or the money, both of which he has a cornucopia of. And he’s not interested in managing or any other job.
Miura does it for the love of the game, and it’s not a cliche.
“When I speak to them about the games I used to play against Milan and who were on those teams, everyone is so surprised it makes me laugh,” Miura said, referring to his Serie A days at Genoa. “Everyone’s been great to me. They’ve really accepted me here.
“I’m really glad I came. It’s a completely different culture to Japan. The way people think, lead their lives. And obviously the way football is played here. So amid all that, it goes without saying it’s a real challenge for me to get a game here.
“But the club has really embraced me, everyone’s been so kind. I want to help the team to victories.”