Nakata - can he be lured out of retirement?

[nelson111]

i doubt it, but Oceania's Club Champions are trying, apparently!

http://www.japantoday.com/category/sports/view/nakatas-11-draw-with-world-stars-in-charity-match

Nakata's 11 draw with World Stars in charity match

Sunday 08th June, 06:29 AM JST

YOKOHAMA —

Former Japan midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata captained ‘‘Japan Stars’’ to a 2-2 draw against a World XI led by new Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho in an exhibition match here on Saturday. Nakata, who retired after the 2006 World Cup in Germany, had a shot deflected onto the woodwork before Masashi Oguro gave the Japanese team the lead in front of 63,000 at Nissan Stadium in Yokohama.

Former France goalkeeper Bernard Lama was left red-faced after a Masaaki Sawanobori shot squirmed through his hands to put the Japanese 2-0 up, but two goals from Turkish striker Ilhan Mansiz gave the ‘‘World Stars’’ a share of the spoils. Thaksin Shinawatra, the Thai owner of English Premier League side Manchester City, is reportedly working hard to try and lure Nakata out of his early retirement while New Zealand’s Oceania champions Waitakere United want the 31-year old to play for them at the Club World Cup in Japan in December.

[RunnaLittle]

What is this Oceania thingy you speak of?

[El Zilcho]

:lol:

Nakata running out with a bunch of kiwi teachers and plumbers. Sounds like a sure thing to me!

[Rob]

Sebastian Deisler.

Give him a big bag of drugs and some good doctors. Tell the lad the summers in Melbourne gets hot and we have a winger :)

[nelson111]

:lol:

Nakata running out with a bunch of kiwi teachers and plumbers. Sounds like a sure thing to me!

hehe... last i heard he was more into the fashion scene than football...

believe it or not, a friend of a good friend of mine was a high school friend of nakata's, and they still catch up for lunch every now and then...

[SoFli]

He'll either go back to Europe or to Tokyo Verdy who are offering him a ton of money to come back as well, there's no fucking way in hell he'd play for some kiwi team. If he wanted to play in just the CWC he'd pick up an easy few hundred grand for Kashima or whatever other Japanese team is probably going to win the ACL.

[JCole]

A true Bolton legend!

[nelson111]

He'll either go back to Europe or to Tokyo Verdy who are offering him a ton of money to come back as well, there's no fucking way in hell he'd play for some kiwi team. If he wanted to play in just the CWC he'd pick up an easy few hundred grand for Kashima or whatever other Japanese team is probably going to win the ACL.

do you reckon he'd play again? last i heard it (admittedly over a year ago) was that playing was the furthest from his mind. he wouldn't need the money, that's for sure.

[VillaPhoenix]

i doubt it, but Oceania's Club Champions are trying, apparently!

http://www.japantoday.com/category/sports/view/nakatas-11-draw-with-world-stars-in-charity-match

Why not.

Good on them for getting some publicity.

Only if that Brazilian guy who claimed to score all those goals was still about.

[TechnicalArea]

do you reckon he'd play again? last i heard it (admittedly over a year ago) was that playing was the furthest from his mind. he wouldn't need the money, that's for sure.

Who knows? Maybe he's blown it all on pachinko. :shifty:

[juanpabloangel]

He would be a perfect Marquee for a year with Gold Coast

[nelson111]

^^ not a bad point, juanpabloangel. a strong japanese presence up there, tourism-wise. and with recent reports of flagging tourist numbers coming to Oz, might be a good twin role for someone like him - if he was interested in the football side of it, of course! esp. if say the qld govt paid his ambassadorial role, it might keep his football salary withing reasonable/reachable bounds.

do they have pachinko on the GC?!

[juanpabloangel]

he also gets to be here during our summer, which is a winner if you live in Japan during winter! I would like to see him play. These are the marquees that we should go for.

[nelson111]

very true. he's still only young, approx 31 or 32 iirc.