is a Japanese

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

who is the manager of Azul Claro Numazu from 2023. He played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

in his playing career.

Club career

Playing as a

, Nakayama made his

J1 League 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 club football. Contested by 18 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the J ...

debut on 11 March 1994. From then until 2009, he was an ever-present part of the

Júbilo Iwata is a professional Japanese association football team that currently play in the J2 League. The team name ''Júbilo'' means 'joy' in Spanish and Portuguese. The team's hometown is Iwata, Shizuoka prefecture and they play at Yamaha Stadium. For ...

lineup as they were consistently one of the top teams in the J1 League since its inception. With a strike-rate of more than a goal every two games throughout his career, Nakayama was the inspirational and talismanic leader for both Júbilo Iwata and the Japanese national team. At the 1998 World Cup finals in France, Nakayama scored the only goal of the tournament and the first goal for Japan in the history of the World Cup against

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

on 26 June 1998.Japan icon Nakayama calls time on career
IFA.com 4 December 2012 He has scored 21 goals in 53 appearances for the Japanese national team.
/ref> Nakayama also holds the world record fastest hat-trick at international level. He managed three goals in an 2000 Asian Cup qualification match against

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...

on 16 February 2000 in only three minutes and three seconds, beating the previous record of Englishman Willie Hall set in 1938 (against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

) by 27 seconds. This striker becomes a record-holder with other hat-tricks, that he did it in four successive games of J1 League, from 15 to 29 April in 1998. He scored 16 times in these games. The record is recognized by the

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

. On 4 December 2012, he announced his retirement at the age of 45, citing injuries to his both knees, after being J1 League's all-time leading scorer with 157 goals. In September 2015, he began to train with Azul Claro Numazu, later signing for the team as a player. Two years later, having still not made his début for Azul Claro in

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 ...

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, ...

competition, his contract was renewed for 2017 season, a first for a professional football club.

Managerial career

On 13 January 2020, Nakayama announced his retirement as a player at the age of 53. Having been the U-18 coach for Azul Claro Numazu for the two year prior, Nakayama revealed he was appointed the manager of Júbilo Iwata in the J2 league. On 13 November 2022, Nakayama was appointment manager of a former player who has defended at a J3 League club Azul Claro Numazu, but has never played at numazu.

Personal Life

Born in

Shizuoka Shizuoka can refer to: * Shizuoka Prefecture, a Japanese prefecture * Shizuoka (city), the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture * Shizuoka Airport * Shizuoka Domain, the name from 1868 to 1871 for Sunpu Domain, a predecessor of Shizuoka Prefecture ...

, Nakayama attended Fujieda Higashi High School and

University of Tsukuba is a public university, public research university located in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, Ibaraki, Japan. It is a top 10 Designated National University, and was ranked Type A by the Japanese government as part of the Top Global University Pro ...

before he joined Yamaha Motors (currently;

) of the

Japan Soccer League , or JSL, was the top flight association football league in Japan between 1965 and 1992, and was the precursor to the current professional league, the J.League. JSL was the second national league of a team sport in Japan after the professional ...

, a precursor to the

, which consisted of company sponsored teams. He retired in December 2012 at age 45 after playing three seasons for

Consadole Sapporo is a Japanese professional football club, which plays in the J1 League. The team is based in Sapporo, on the island of Hokkaido. The club name of "Consadole" is made from ''consado'', a reverse of the Japanese word and the Spanish expression ...

, then he came back almost three years later with Azul Claro Numazu in

Japan Football League The also known as simply the JFL is the 4th tier of the Japanese association football league system, positioned beneath the three divisions of the J.League. The league features fully professional teams that hold J.League associate membership am ...

, the club has been promoted to the

J3 League or simply J3 is the third division of . It was established in 2013 as the third-tier professional association football league in Japan. The third-tier nationwide league is a relatively recent development in Japanese football with a first attempt ...

since 2017. He also attends by the nickname Gon Nakayama.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Managerial statistics

Update; ''appointment as manager of Azul Claro Numazu from 2023 season''

Honours

;Júbilo Iwata *

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 ...

: 1998–99 *

Asian Super Cup The Asian Super Cup was an annual football competition between the winners of the Asian Club Championship and the Asian Cup Winners' Cup. The competition started in 1995, but came to an end in 2002 after both major AFC tournaments were merged int ...

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 shootin ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

Emperor's Cup , commonly known as or also Japan FA Cup is a Japanese football competition. It has the longest tradition of any football match in Japan, dating back to 1921, before the formation of the J.League, Japan Football League and their predecessor, J ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

Japanese Super Cup The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is an annual one-match association football competition in Japan organised by J. League and the Japan Football Association (JFA). This competition serves as the season opener and is played between the r ...

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 ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

;Japan *

AFC Asian Cup The AFC Asian Cup is the primary association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), determining the continental champion of Asia. It is the second oldest cont ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

FIFA Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, ...

Runner-up:

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

Individual *

J.League Most Valuable Player The J.League Player of the Year (formerly known as the "J.League Most Valuable Player Award" from 1993 to 2020) is awarded by the J.League to the most valuable player of the season. J1 League Winners Wins by club J2 League Winners J3 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 ...

* J.League Top Scorer:

J.League Best XI 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 (20 ...

* J.League 20th Anniversary Team * Japanese Footballer of the Year: 1998 * AFC Player of the Month: April 1998 * Selected to AFC All Star Team: 1999

Trivia

*Nakayama is currently the all-time top goal scorer in

with 157 goals. He holds the record for top scorer in a single season, scoring 36 goals in

. *Nakayama once portrayed himself on television, performing voice work for a guest role on the anime Hungry Heart: Wild Striker. *Nakayama appeared on the front cover of the Japanese releases of

Konami , is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...

's ''

Winning Eleven ''eFootball'', formerly known as ''Pro Evolution Soccer'' (''PES'') internationally and in Japan and North America, is a series of association football simulation video games developed and published by Konami since 1995. The series consists ...

'' video game series (''World Soccer: Winning Eleven 6'' and ''World Soccer: Winning Eleven 6 - Final Evolution'') in 2002 and 2003. *He married actress Tomoko Ikuta in 1996, and together they had a daughter. Ikuta did the voice-over for lead actress

Lee Young-ae Lee Young-ae (born January 31, 1971) is a South Korean actress. She is known for her appearances in the Korean historical drama ''Dae Jang Geum'' (2003), and as a revenge seeking single mother in Park Chan-wook's crime thriller film ''Sympathy ...

in the Japanese version of the popular South Korean TV series

Dae Jang Geum ''Dae Jang Geum'' (; literally "The Great Jang-geum"), also known as ''Jewel in the Palace'', is a 2003 South Korean historical drama television series directed by Lee Byung-hoon. It first aired on MBC from September 15, 2003 to March 23, 20 ...

. *Nakayama portrayed himself in episode 19 of

HappinessCharge PreCure! , also called ''HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!'' or Happiness Charge PC is a 2014 Japanese magical girl anime series produced by Toei Animation, and the eleventh installment in Izumi Todo's ''Pretty Cure'' metaseries, released to celebrate t ...

. This episode corresponded with the opening of the World Cup.

Notes

References

External links

* *
Japan National Football Team Database
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nakayama, Masashi 1967 births Living people University of Tsukuba alumni Association football people from Shizuoka Prefecture Japanese footballers Japanese football managers Japan international footballers Japan Soccer League players J1 League players J2 League players J3 League players J3 League managers Japan Football League (1992–1998) players Japan Football League players Júbilo Iwata players Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo players Azul Claro Numazu players Azul Claro Numazu managers J1 League Player of the Year winners 1988 AFC Asian Cup players 1992 AFC Asian Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2002 FIFA World Cup players AFC Asian Cup-winning players Association football forwards People from Fujieda, Shizuoka