The Zico statue, one of the symbolic monuments at Kashima Stadium, would have surely been viewed by hundreds of visitors if the Tokyo Olympics had been carried out under normal circumstances.
But the organizers decided to host the majority of the competitions without spectators as Tokyo entered its fourth state of emergency on July 12. The stadium in Ibaraki Prefecture was no exception on Thursday evening.
So the statue of Zico, a former global superstar midfielder who played here for the Antlers from 1991 to 1994, was standing in solitude even as the first men’s soccer matches of the Tokyo Games got underway at the stadium.