'King Kazu' turns 50 with J.League start

Go for it. Congratulations, Kazu.

Acing Japan loves its oldsters.

But quite a career for this not quite top-tier talent. Good on him.

Great achievement. Kazu is a fantastic pro who loves the game.

Turning up on match-day is one thing but training 5 times a week, staying fit, the pre season preps etc is what's imo even more remarkable. Congrats to Mrs Kazu too.

Like many famous people in Japan he is more noted for his advertising work than actual talent.

"Like many famous people in Japan he is more noted for his advertising work than actual talent."

He's seen as a trailblazer for Japanese football. Nobody is claiming he was a world-class player although he was pretty handy.

He clearly loves the game, kept himself in shape and seems a decent lad.

No need for catty comments.

Maybe there wouldn't be if I didn't have to see him in so many commercials. I probably would respect him a lot more if his face hadn't become so annoying.

Good for him

@Jimizo (4:24PM JST) Ditto that ! Haters will hate, and cynics will be cynical ! Ganbarre, King Kazu !

Well done to him but that really doesn't say much for the standard of the league.

If he's so great then why doesn't he step aside and let some of the younger talent come through and shine rather than hogging the limelight? Then he can devote more time to wearing turtle-neck sweaters and wearing thick-rimmed glasses while doing interviews to feed the media's insatiable appetite for him.

Blue Samurai

It's Samurai Blue. Does nobody read this stuff before its uploaded?

If he's so great then why doesn't he step aside

If he's good enough to be in the lineup and help his team win, he should be playing.

Veejay - when J-League started Kazu did a damn sight more to get Japanese soccer fans through the turnstiles than many highly paid foreign imports (Linecker etc.). He took himself off to Brazil as a teen to refine his game. He was first picked on the Japanese national team for years. Won Asian Player of the Year in 1993. First Japanese player to play in Italy. He is 50, still playing and still pulling fans. And you? Japanese respect past efforts of many people, not only sports-players.

Won Asian Player of the Year in 1993. Japanese respect past efforts of many people

exactly

Japan the land of the dinosaurs. here on JT we frown on oldies not giving place to the young yet some of us are hailing a player who is way over the hill just because he is 50, He is unproductive as a soccer player at his age, maybe the added publicity from the media is what the team is more interested in rather than his on field performance. Him playing at this age says alot about the standards of the league.

Drlucifer, he plays in J2, not a top league.

Peyton Manning's arm went dead last year, but in comparison, he is way ahead of Miura's current comparative ability. For the western sports fan, it is ridiculous to think a 50 year old, who wasn't all that great to begin with, is still making news as a player. There's some kind of cultural gap here, because there are many defending Kazu, as if he should play for as long as he can, but his physical ability is gone, and it is senseless to hang on, as if he has something left in the tank. The idea of hanging on too long to lost ability is an embarrassment to many.

If this were the popular way to go, in Denver, John Elway would still be slinging footballs, instead of leading as a general manager. That is where the best use of maturity of the mind and man should be, instead of being a player of no further sporting value.