Kazuyoshi Miura has been unveiled as a new player for Portugal’s Oliveirense and is set to make his debut for the country’s second-tier side. Unbelievable, but a fact – the new player of the team is 55 years old. What’s more – in 25 days he will turn 56!
The Japanese nicknamed King Kazu is the oldest professional player on the planet, and his sporting longevity never ceases to amaze.
He played the last season on loan from Yokohama at Suzuka Point, a third-tier team in his homeland. Now it remains the property of the grande again, but it goes as a ceded to Portugal. The reasons are not only sports-technical, of course. Yokohama owns shares in Oliveirense, and Miura’s emergence has sparked huge global media interest in the otherwise humble Portuguese club.
Kazu made his professional football debut in 1986 when he played for the first team of the Brazilian Santos. He grew up in this country, where he also plays for another great Palmeiras. In Italy he was in Genoa, he also made a transfer to the Croatian Dinamo (Zagreb), and in Australia he was one of the pioneers of the A League at the beginning of the century with FC Sydney.
In his homeland, he has over 500 matches – the most with Yokohama, but also with Verdi Kawasaki and Vissel Kobe.
For the national team of Japan, he scored 55 times in 89 matches.
“I am ready to work hard and look for a place in the team,” said Miura at his presentation today. According to the media in Japan, the footballer wants to stay on the field until he is 60 years old.
Oliveirense is ninth in the Portuguese second league standings and still has a theoretical chance of attacking promotion to the elite.
