is a Japanese

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 le ...

who plays as a centre back for

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

club Huddersfield Town and the Japan national team.

Club career

Kashiwa Reysol

Nakayama was born in Ibaraki, Japan. He made his official debut for

Kashiwa Reysol is a Japanese professional football club based in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. Their home stadium is Sankyo Frontier Kashiwa Stadiu ...

in the

J. League Division 1 The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the system. Founded in 1992, it is one of the most successful leagues in Asian Football Confederation, Asian club football. Contested by 18 clubs, it operates on a system of promot ...

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

on 6 May 2015 against the Vietnam-based club Binh Duong F.C in

Go Dau Stadium Go, GO, G.O., or Go! may refer to: Arts and entertainment Games and sport * Go (game), a board game for two players * '' Travel Go'' (formerly ''Go – The International Travel Game''), a game based on world travel * Go, the starting position l ...

Thu Dau Mot Thu and variations may refer to: * Thursday * Thu (surname), the Gan romanization of the Chinese surname Su * Thu (pronoun) or Þu, an Old English pronoun * Thû, an early name for Sauron in J.R.R. Tolkien's works * Thu, Palpa, a village developme ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. He started and played the full match, receiving a yellow card in the 83rd minute. Nakayama and his club lost the match 1–0. In 2017, Nakayama was named

J.League Rookie of the Year The J.League Best Young Player (formerly known as the "J.League Rookie of the Year" from 1993 to 2019) is awarded by the J.League to the most outstanding rookie of the season. To be considered a rookie, a player must be in his first professional y ...

PEC Zwolle

On 15 January 2019, Nakayama joined

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

team

PEC Zwolle PEC Zwolle is a Dutch football club based in Zwolle, Netherlands. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegation from the Eredivisie in the 2021–22 season. They have played in the Eredivisie for a total ...

on a three and half year deal. He made his debut for Zwolle on 31 March 2019, in a 3–0 home victory over

FC Emmen FC Emmen is a Dutch football club based in Emmen, Drenthe. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, after winning the 2021–22 Eerste Divisie title. Founded in 1925, the club entered the professional Eerste Divisie in 1985. I ...

. He scored his first goal in the Netherlands, on 17 January 2020, in a 3–3 draw against

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

Huddersfield Town

On 15 July 2022, following PEC Zwolle's relegation from the Eredivisie, Nakayama joined

club Huddersfield Town on a two year deal. Nakayama scored his first goal in England in his third appearance for Huddersfield, a 3–1 victory over

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

on 13 August 2022.

International career

In May 2017, Nakayama was elected Japan U-20 national team for 2017 U-20 World Cup. At this tournament, he played full time in all four matches as center back. He made his Japan national team debut on 17 June 2019 in the

2019 Copa América The 2019 Copa América was the 46th edition of the Copa América, the international men's association football championship organized by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. It was held in Brazil and took place between 14 June and 7 ...

game against

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, as a starter. Nakayama was selected for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

, but he was forced to withdraw from the official squad list, due to an

achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus ( grc-gre, Ἀχιλλεύς) was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and the central character of Homer's ''Iliad''. He was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus, k ...

injury.

Career statistics

Club

National team

Honors

Individual *

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

References

External links

* * *
Profile
at Kashiwa Reysol official website * * 1997 births Living people Association football defenders Association football people from Saitama Prefecture Japanese footballers Japan youth international footballers Japan under-20 international footballers Japan international footballers J1 League players J3 League players Kashiwa Reysol players PEC Zwolle players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Eredivisie players J.League U-22 Selection players 2019 Copa América players Japanese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in England Japanese expatriate sportspeople in England Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Japan English Football League players Japanese expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands {{Japan-footy-defender-1990s-stub