Mr. Hidetoshi Nakata, a key playmaker for Japan's national soccer team, has announced that he will retire from the sport as a professional. This international midfielder and national superstar has contributed much to the upsurge in popularity of soccer among Japanese since the mid-1990s.
The 29-year-old icon, the only player to have appeared in all 10 of Japan's World Cup matches, became a professional soccer player in 1995, when he joined the Bellmare Hiratsuka of the J. League. In May 1997, he debuted internationally as a member of Japan's national team.
In the summer of 1998, he transferred to Perugia of the Serie A, to become the second Japanese to play in Italy. He also played with Roma, Parma, Bologna and Fiorentina before joining the English club Bolton in August 2005.