is a Japanese former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a defender and

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. At international level, he represented Japan national team playing at both the 2002, and the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

Club career

Kashima Antlers

The 'other Nakata', as he is known to most non-Japanese fans, is a left-footed midfielder. A very versatile player, Nakata has established himself as one of the best defensive midfielders for Japan. Nakata was born in Otsu on 9 July 1979. After graduating from high school, he joined Kashima Antlers in 1998. Japan national team players

Masashi Motoyama is a Japanese football player, who currently plays for Kelantan United F.C. in Malaysia Premier League. He played for Japan national team. Club career Motoyama was born in Kitakyushu on June 20, 1979. After graduating from high school, he jo ...

Mitsuo Ogasawara is a Japanese former. professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He played for Japan national team. Club career Ogasawara was born in Morioka on April 5, 1979. After graduating from high school, he joined J1 League club Kashima Ant ...

and

Hitoshi Sogahata is a Japanese former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Kashima Antlers and the Japan national team. Club career Sogahata was born in Kashima on August 2, 1979. He joined J1 League club Kashima Antlers based in his loc ...

were Nakata's contemporaries. He debuted as defensive midfielder in first season and the club won the championship in the 1998 J1 League. From 2000, he became a regular player and constituted midfielder with Yasuto Honda, Bismarck, Motoyama and Ogasawara. In 2000, the club won all three major title in Japan J1 League,

J.League Cup The is a Japanese football (soccer) competition organized by J.League. It has been sponsored by Yamazaki Biscuits (YBC) of Yamazaki Baking (formerly Yamazaki Nabisco) since its inception in 1992. It is also known as the or (Levain is one of Y ...

and Emperor's Cup. In 2001, the club won J1 League and he was also elected Best Eleven. The club also won 2002 J.League Cup.

Olympique Marseille

Nakata moved from Japanese Kashima Antlers to France at the start of 2005, when former Japan national team manager

Philippe Troussier Philippe Omar TroussierOctober's ten - Religious conversions

, then the Olympique de Marseille coach, signed him in a deal. After an understandably unhappy season in France (Troussier was sacked just a few months later), the frozen-out Nakata jumped at the chance to leave and early 2006 he moved to Switzerland's top team

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, a ...

Basel

On 1 February 2006, it was announced that

had signed Nakata on a two-and-a-half-year contract. He was the first Japanese player to sign for a Swiss top-flight club. He joined Basel's first team during the winter break of their 2005–06 season under head coach

Christian Gross Christian Jürgen Gross (born 14 August 1954) is a Swiss football manager and former player who most recently coached Schalke 04. He played as a sweeper and central midfielder. Gross was manager of Basel from 1 July 1999 to 27 May 2009, winning ...

, who was in his seventh season with the club in that position. After playing in two test games, Nakata played his domestic league debut for the club in the home game in the

St. Jakob-Park St. Jakob-Park () is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity w ...

on 19 February as Basel played a 1–1 draw with

Schaffhausen Schaffhausen (; gsw, Schafuuse; french: Schaffhouse; it, Sciaffusa; rm, Schaffusa; en, Shaffhouse) is a town with historic roots, a municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of the same name; it has an estimate ...

. Just one week later he scored his first goal for his new club on 26 February, also in a home game, it was the equaliser after Basel fell behind and eventually the team won 2–1 against Yverdon-Sport. Basel had started the season well and led the championship right until the last day of the league campaign. On the final day of the league season Basel played at home against

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich ...

. A last-minute goal from Zürich's

Iulian Filipescu Iulian Sebastian Filipescu (born 29 March 1974) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a centre back. He debuted in Divizia A with Steaua București in 1993 and became part of a league championship winning team for seven sea ...

meant the final score was 1-2 in favour of the away team and it gave FCZ their first national championship since 1980–81. The title for Basel was lost on goal difference. FC Basel's European campaign started in the first qualifying stage of the 2006–07 UEFA Cup, here they beat Kazakhi side

FC Tobol FC Tobol ( kk, Тобыл футбол клубы, Tobyl Futbol Kluby) is a Kazakh professional football club based at the Central Stadium in Kostanay. They have been members of the Kazakhstan Premier League since its foundation in 1992. The ...

3–1 on aggregate. In the second qualifying round they were drawn against

FC Vaduz FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Paki ...

from

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarch ...

, narrowly progressing on the away goals rule after a 2–2 aggregate draw. In the first round Basel won 7–2 on aggregate against

FK Rabotnički FK Rabotnichki ( mk, ФК Работнички) or more commonly Rabotnički (old transliteration) and Rabotnicki is a football club that plays at the Toshe Proeski Arena in Skopje, North Macedonia. They currently compete in the Macedonian First ...

to qualified for the group stage. Here Basel played their first match at home against

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club (association football), football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names bef ...

, this ended in a 1–1 draw. Their second was away and FCB lost 3–0 against

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

. At home against

AS Nancy Association Sportive Nancy Lorraine (), commonly known as AS Nancy Lorraine, or simply Nancy, is a French association football club founded in 1967 in Nancy, Grand Est and located in Tomblaine, in the inner suburbs of Nancy. The club currently ...

the match was drawn 2–2 and the final game ended ended with a 3–1 defeat against

Wisła Kraków Towarzystwo Sportowe Wisła Kraków Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Wisła Kraków (), is a Polish professional football club based in Kraków. It currently competes in the I liga, the second level of Polish football league system. ...

. Basel ended the group stage in last position in the table and were eliminated. Nakata played in nine of these ten matches. Nakata scored another goal for the team on 15 October 2006 in the away game in the

Stadion Breite Stadion Breite is a multi-purpose stadium in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. It is currently used mostly for football matches and was the home ground of FC Schaffhausen until they moved to LIPO Park Schaffhausen in 2017. The current capacity of the ...

, but it could not help the team, as Basel were defeated 4–2 by

. At the end of the 2006–07 Super League season Basel were runners-up, one point behind championship winners

. Nakata played in 34 of the 36 league matches. In the Swiss Cup Basel advanced to the final, beating FC Liestal in the first round,

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

FC Baulmes FC Baulmes is a Swiss football club based in Baulmes Baulmes () is a municipality in the district of Jura-Nord Vaudois in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. History Baulmes is first mentioned in 652 as ''in loco Balmensi''. In 1123 it wa ...

, Aarau and

Wil Wil () is the capital of the ''Wahlkreis'' (constituency) of Wil in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Wil is the third largest city in the Canton of St. Gallen, after the city of St. Gallen and Rapperswil-Jona, a twin city that merged in ...

in the semi-final. In the final they played Luzern and won this 1–0 thanks to a penalty goal in the third minute of added time. Nakata played in five of the six cup games. Basel played in the

2007–08 UEFA Cup The 2007–08 UEFA Cup was the 37th edition of the UEFA Cup, UEFA's second-tier club football tournament. The final was played at the City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester, England on 14 May 2008 between Rangers of Scotland and Zenit Saint ...

. Winning both matches in the qualification round and both matches in the play-off round, they team advanced to the group stage, which they ended undefeated in second position, after playing 1–0 at home against

Stade Rennes Stade Rennais Football Club (), commonly referred to as Stade Rennais FC, Stade Rennais, Rennes, or simply SRFC, is a French professional football club based in Rennes, Brittany. They compete in Ligue 1, the top tier of French football, and pl ...

, 0–0 away against

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb ( en, Dinamo Zagreb Citizens' Football Club, link=yes, italics=yes), commonly referred to as GNK Dinamo Zagreb or simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo ...

, 1–0 at home against Brann and 1–1 away against

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

, to continue the knockout stage. But then they were eliminated here by

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

. Nakata played in five of these European games. At the end of the 2007–08 season he won the

Double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

with the club. They won the

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

Championship title with four points advantage over second placed Young Boys. Nakata played in 18 of the 36 league games. In the Swiss Cup via FC Léchelles,

SC Binningen Sport Club Binningen is a Swiss football club based in Binningen. Founded in 1920, the club competes in 2. Liga, the fifth tier of the Swiss Football League. They play at Spiegelfeld, a stadium in Binningen which opened in 2005 and has a capaci ...

, Grasshopper Club,

Stade Nyonnais FC Stade Nyonnais is an association football club based in the town of Nyon, Switzerland. The team currently competes in the Promotion League, the third tier of the Swiss football league system and plays its home matches at Stade de Colovray, ...

and in the semi-final

Thun , neighboring_municipalities= Amsoldingen, Heiligenschwendi, Heimberg, Hilterfingen, Homberg, Schwendibach, Spiez, Steffisburg, Thierachern, Uetendorf, Zwieselberg , twintown = , website = www.thun.ch Thun (french: Thou ...

, Basel advanced to the final, and winning this 4–1 against

AC Bellinzona AC Bellinzona is a Swiss football club based in Bellinzona. It was founded in 1904, and won the Swiss Super League in 1948. After being folded in 2013 declaring bankruptcy, the team played the Ticino Group of 2.Liga, the sixth tier of the Swi ...

they won the competition. Nakata played in three of the six games, including the final. Nakata left Basel at the end of the season. During his time with the club, he played a total of 112 games for Basel scoring a total of six goals. 62 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, eight in the Swiss Cup, 14 in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

and 28 were friendly games. He scored three goals in the domestic league, two in the cup and the other two were scored during the test games.

Kashima Antlers

Nakata returned to Kashima Antlers in July 2008. He played at many defensive position, defensive midfielder, left side-back and center-back. The club won the champions

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, 2009 J1 League,

2010 Emperor's Cup The began on 4 September 2010 and ended on 1 January 2011 with the final at National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. Gamba Osaka were the two-time defending champions, having won two previous tournaments. Kashima Antlers won the tournament and was awar ...

, 2011 and

2012 J.League Cup The 2012 J.League Cup, also known as the 2012 J.League Yamazaki Nabisco Cup for sponsoring purposes, was the 37th edition of the most prestigious Japanese soccer league cup tournament and the 20th edition under the current J.League Cup format. Kas ...

. He retired end of 2014 season.

International career

Although Nakata played as defensive midfielder at the club, he played as left-back of three backs defense at

U20 U20 or U-20 may refer to: Naval vessels * * , a sloop of the Royal Navy * , a submarine of the Austro-Hungarian Navy Other uses * Great truncated cuboctahedron * Meizu U20, a smartphone * Roland U-20, a synthesizer * Small nucleolar RNA SN ...

, U23 and senior national team under manager

Philippe Troussier Philippe Omar TroussierOctober's ten - Religious conversions

. In April 1999, Nakata played for Japan U20 at 1999 World Youth Championship. He played all 7 matches with defender

Kazuki Teshima is a former Japanese football player. Club career Teshima was born in Iizuka on June 7, 1979. After graduating from high school, he joined Yokohama Flügels in 1998. However the club was disbanded end of 1998 season due to financial strain, he ...

and

Shigeki Tsujimoto is a former Japanese football player. Club career Tsujimoto was born in Suita on 23 June 1979. After graduating from Kindai University High School, he joined Yokohama Flügels in 1998. However the club was disbanded end of 1998 season due to ...

, and Japan won the 2nd place. On 5 February 2000, Nakata debuted for Japan national team against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. In September, he was elected U23 Japan for

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

. Although he played as regular player, he got hurt in third match against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and he could not play after the match. In 2001 and 2002, Nakata played all matches for Japan including 2001 Confederations Cup and

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

. At Confederations Cup, Japan won the 2nd place. At 2002 World Cup, he played full-time all 4 matches. After 2002 World Cup, Nakata played as defensive midfielder under new manager Zico. Although his opportunity to play decreased, he was elected Japan for many competition, 2003, 2005 Confederations Cup, 2004 Asian Cup and

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

. At 2004 Asian Cup, he played 4 matches and scored 2 goals in semifinal and

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

, and Japan won the champions. He played 57 games and scored 2 goals for Japan until 2007.Japan National Football Team Database
/ref>

Personal life

Nakata announced that he will get married with

Nao Nagasawa is a Japanese actress, voice actress, former singer and model. She is known for her roles in various tokusatsu series, film, and drama, such as "Nanami Nono / Hurricane Blue" in the series Super Sentai '' Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger''. Filmogra ...

on 22 February 2014
www.orendsrange.com

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Japan's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Nakata goal.''

Honours

Kashima Antlers *

A3 Champions Cup A3 Champions Cup (also known as East Asian Champions Cup) was an annual football (soccer) tournament jointly organized by the China PR, Japan and Korea Republic football Association. It began in 2003, involving the league champions of China, Japan ...

: 2003 * J1 League:

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, 2001,

, 2009 * Emperor's Cup:

, 2010 *

, 2002, 2011,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

* Suruga Bank Championship:

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

Marseille * UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2005 FC Basel * Swiss Super League: 2007–08 * Swiss Cup: 2006–07, 2007–08 * Uhren Cup: 2006 Japan * AFC Asian Cup: 2004 * FIFA Confederations Cup runner-up: 2001 Japan U20 *

FIFA World Youth Championship The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 wh ...

runner-up:

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

Individual *

J. League Best Eleven The J.League Best XI is an acknowledgement of the best eleven players in J.League. J1 League (1993–present) Multiple appearances Appearances by club Appearances by country * Only in two occasions there was a full-Japanese Best XI (200 ...

: 2001 * J. League Cup MVP: 2000

References

External links

* * * *
Rising Sun News profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nakata, Koji 1979 births Living people Association football people from Shiga Prefecture Japanese footballers Association football defenders Association football midfielders Japan youth international footballers Japan international footballers Olympic footballers of Japan Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2004 AFC Asian Cup players 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2006 FIFA World Cup players AFC Asian Cup-winning players J1 League players Ligue 1 players Swiss Super League players Kashima Antlers players Olympique de Marseille players FC Basel players Japanese expatriate footballers Japanese expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in France Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Switzerland