Two weeks shy of his 50th birthday, Kazuyoshi Miura became the oldest player in professional soccer to score in a competitive league, leading his side, Yokohama F.C. The oldest player to play professionally in Japan, he began his career with Brazilian club Santos FC in 1986. Kazuyoshi Miura holds the records as Japan’s oldest ever goalscorer and the world’s longest-tenured footballer. As well as being the most senior ever professional footballer, aged 55 as of 2022, Kazuyoshi Miura (San Pu Zhi Liang, Miura Kazuyoshi, born 26 February 1967), commonly known simply as Kazu (nicknamed King Kazu ), is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a striker for the Japanese Football League club Suzuka Point Getters on loaned from Yokohama Football Club.
Kazuyoshi Miura, Japan’s oldest active professional footballer at the age of 54, stated that Kazuyoshi Miura would be joining the fourth-tier club managed by his older brother for his 37th professional season. Miura may have been born just two years before the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon Landing and began his professional soccer career the same year the Chernobyl Disaster occurred in 1986. Still, Japan’s legendary star, Miura, is expected to continue playing for at least one more year once he finds himself a new club. Kazuyoshi Miura was named the Asian Player of the Year in 1993, nearly earned a spot at the 1994 World Cup, scored plenty of goals for his country, and was heralded as a hero in Japan.
Kazuyoshi Miura became the first Japanese soccer player to win the Asian Player of the Year award and the Best Player in the J League. Kazuyoshi Miura played for Japan’s national team from 1990-2000. He, therefore, became the first Japanese footballer ever to play in the First Division, the wealthiest soccer league in the world at that time. While he will probably be used sparingly for the World’s Oldest Professional Footballer at Yokohama, it would still be breaking another record of being the oldest top-flight player worldwide should he ever tread on Japanese turf. Despite being 55, The Real Player is still footballing and is the oldest player currently playing.
Miura is recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the most senior player and oldest goalscorer in the history of professional football, taking both records away from the legendary Sir Stanley Matthews, who retired from the sport aged 50. Those who are not yet convinced can watch highlights from one of Kazuyoshi Miura‘s last performances and see a man who continues to cherish and play football’s beautiful game at the brink of middle age.
