Former Samurai Blue star and Celtic legend Shunsuke Nakamura announced his intention to retire on Tuesday, closing the book on a storied career as Japan’s greatest dead-ball specialist and one of the country’s most prominent global superstars.
The 44-year-old midfielder, best known among J. League fans for his time at Yokohama F. Marinos — with whom he won an unprecedented pair of MVP trophies but failed to capture the first-division title — had seen his appearances decrease in recent years due to injuries, nevertheless continuing to wow fans at Jubilo Iwata and most recently Yokohama FC with his dazzling free kicks when his fitness allowed him to play.
“Forty years have passed since I began kicking the ball as a kindergartener, and in the beginning it was simply because I enjoyed it,” Nakamura said in comments released through Yokohama FC. “Then soccer became my job and I’ve spent 26 years as a professional athlete.
“Over my long career, I’ve had many struggles and setbacks, but there was always someone ready to support me and push me forward.”
Though it was in Yokohama where Nakamura made his name, it was in Glasgow where he wrote the bulk of his legend, with his achievements at Celtic paving the way for dozens of Japanese players to follow the path that he and contemporaries like Hidetoshi Nakata and Shinji Ono had blazed to Europe.
"Hidetoshi Nakata, Nakamura and others showed that it could be done," writer Anthony Haggerty of The Celtic Way told The Japan Times. "These guys were important for Japanese players, just to get Europeans' eyes open wide ... to not just see these guys at World Cups, to actually see them on a weekly basis.
"I think any aspiring Japanese player looked at them and thought 'If they can do it, I can do it. (Japanese players) are just as good. We'll show them.'"
His clever passing and gravity-defying free kicks bewitched fans not only domestically but also in the Champions League, where his November 2006 stunner against Manchester United helped Celtic reach the Round of 16 for the first time and remains one of the competition’s most celebrated goals.
“It was a special night,” then-Celtic manager Gordon Strachan told the club’s official magazine in March. “That was a goal which, for the rest of his life, he’ll meet Celtic supporters everywhere — anywhere he goes — and they’re going to mention that goal.”
In 166 appearances over four years at the club, Nakamura contributed to three Scottish Premier League titles, a pair of League Cup wins and one Scottish Cup, with the 2006-07 season in particular seeing him named Player of the Year by the Scottish Professional Footballers’ Association, the Scottish Football Writers’ Association and the SPL itself. Though he did not receive any votes, he made history as the first Japanese player to be nominated for the Ballon d'Or in 2007, the year the award expanded from Europe to recognize the world's best.
A Yokohama native who spent his youth with F. Marinos predecessor Nissan Motors as well as Toko Gakuen High School in Kawasaki, Nakamura joined Marinos in 1997 — prior to the addition of the “F.” that came with the absorption of crosstown rivals Yokohama Flugels — emerging as one of Japan’s top young talents and being named league MVP in 2000, just months after he had represented Japan at the Sydney Olympics and won the country's second Asian Cup title in Lebanon.
"The Japanese coaches were already telling us (the foreign staff) 'we have to give the ball to Shunsuke, he is the best,'" said Florent Dabadie, the interpreter of then-head coach Philippe Troussier. "And it was true that his left foot was sweet, he had a long pass and dribbling ability, and soccer IQ that none of the other stars of the time like Nakata, or Hiroshi Nanami had.
"At the same time he was extremely shy. I had the impression that his haircut in bangs, which covered his eyes completely, was really a way to hide himself from the others, like a curtain you draw in a sleeping compartment on a train."
Nakamura's skill as a playmaker, pinpoint-perfect aim and fanatical dedication to training earned attention from Italy’s Reggina, who signed him in the summer of 2002 after earning promotion to the top-flight Serie A. The move was seen as crucial to his development after his shock omission from Philippe Troussier’s FIFA World Cup squad, with the Frenchman doubting the then-24-year-old’s physical strength and defensive abilities in his 3-5-2 formation.
"There was the option of taking him and sitting him on the bench. His free kick and set play ability could have made him a lethal weapon," Dabadie said. "So he was to start against Norway (in a May 2002 friendly), but his lower back pain was bothering him so much that he couldn't train properly, and that was that."
Nakamura impressed in his first European campaign, helping the scrappy club at the toe of Italy’s boot avoid relegation with a joint-team-best seven goals. But injuries and constant managerial upheaval limited his appearances and effectiveness, and Nakamura — who was targeting a spot in the 2006 FIFA World Cup after failing to earn a selection for Philippe Troussier’s 2002 squad — sought greener pastures.
He found them to the north in Glasgow, with a herd of Japanese journalists following his every move and fans regularly flying across the world to see him in person at Celtic Park.
“He arrived in Scotland in 2005, unknown, and then he left as a bit of a demigod,” Haggerty recalled. “He became a real household name, and all because he had a wonderful vision, a sublime touch and this unerring ability to bend the football ... it bordered on the supernatural.”
Nakamura's time in Europe helped him become a key figure in the national team under Brazilian head coach Zico, including two goals and three assists in Japan's 2004 Asian Cup triumph and three starts in his World Cup debut in Germany two years later in the No. 10 shirt.
After his contract with Celtic expired in 2009, Nakamura reached for one last chance at an elite European league by signing with Spain’s Espanyol. But he failed to adapt to life in La Liga and left the club after just half a year, rejoining F. Marinos ahead of the 2010 J. League season with an eye on that year’s World Cup.
Nakamura did find his way into Takeshi Okada’s squad for South Africa but watched most of Japan’s exploits from the bench, with a new playmaker — a brash blond-haired dynamo named Keisuke Honda — taking center stage as the Samurai Blue reached the Round of 16 on foreign soil for the first time.
Free from the burden of international duty, Nakamura enjoyed a second renaissance at F. Marinos in the 2010s, becoming team captain in 2011 and surpassing Yasuhito Endo two years later for the most direct free-kick goals in the J1. That year saw Nakamura claim his second MVP award — a bittersweet award after F. Marinos missed out on the league title with two losses to end the season.
Nakamura’s relationship with his boyhood club ended acrimoniously after the 2016 season, when — dissatisfied with decisions made by minority owner City Football Group and its hand-picked manager Erick Mombaerts — he signed a multi-year contract with Jubilo. Nakamura’s presence at F. Marinos was so significant that club officials predicted a 33% drop in merchandise sales as a result of his departure.
Even as his output on the pitch has declined, Nakamura has remained a favorite of fans around the world, with his New Year’s variety show appearances — featuring free-kick stunts ranging from shooting a ball into a moving bus to knocking the topper off a wedding cake — becoming viral sensations online.
His reputation has even enjoyed a revival among Celtic supporters over the last 15 months, with the arrival of four Japanese players in Glasgow under current manager Ange Postecoglou offering the club a chance to connect past with present.
While he is expected to discuss his post-retirement plans in November following the conclusion of the J. League season, Nakamura is widely thought to be targeting a second career in the coaching ranks and has already received a "B" class license from the Japan Football Association.
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