How Hidetoshi Nakata went from football and fashion icon to Japanese cultural ambassador
- The ‘David Beckham of Asia’ has moved into the drinks business after a stint in high fashion
- The Japanese star played for seven clubs during a glittering football career
The man once dubbed the “David Beckham of Asia” does not look back. Hidetoshi Nakata has more than moved on from a storied football career that ended abruptly 13 years ago at the tender age of 29.
Stylish and charismatic, as a 21-year-old creative midfielder he led Japan to their first World Cup appearance in 1998 and in the process became equal parts sporting hero and pop culture phenomenon.
Nakata soon found himself playing in Italy’s Serie A with Perugia, and as the only Japanese international in Europe at the time, the interest in him back home was ravenous, particularly with the World Cup coming to Japan and South Korea in 2002. He would score 10 goals in his first season at Perugia and after a few other memorable Italian stops, including AS Roma where he helped them win their first Scudetto (Serie A championship) in almost 20 years, and a season in England with Bolton Wanderers, he called it quits following the 2006 World Cup.
A two-time Asian Football Confederation player of the year who was also shortlisted for the Fifa world player of the year, according to Nakata it’s all part of who he was, not who he is. “When I was born I was not born to be a football player, I was born to be myself,” he said. “So football was just my passion. I didn’t see football as my career or as my dream.”
Thanks to his current role as founder and chief executive of Japan Craft Sake Company, Nakata has emerged as an invaluable cultural ambassador seeking to enlighten both a domestic and international audience to the layered craftsmanship and history behind the country’s much-vaunted fermented rice drink.
