29 Facts About Kazuyoshi Miura

Kazuyoshi Miura is the world's second oldest active player to play and oldest to score in a professional match.

Kazuyoshi Miura played for the Japan national team from 1990 to 2000, and was the first Japanese recipient of the IFFHS Asia's Footballer of the Year award.

Kazuyoshi Miura holds the records for being the oldest active goalscorer in the J-League, the footballer with the world's second longest professional career, and, as of 2025, is the second oldest professional footballer in the world at 58.

Kazuyoshi Miura's elder brother Yasutoshi is a former professional footballer.

In 1982, Kazuyoshi Miura left the Shizuoka Gakuen High School after less than a year, and travelled alone to Brazil at the age of fifteen to become a professional footballer there.

Kazuyoshi Miura signed with the youth squad of Sao Paulo side Juventus, and in 1986, Miura signed his first professional contract with Santos.

Kazuyoshi Miura played for several other Brazilian clubs, including Palmeiras and Coritiba, until his return to Japan in 1990.

On 15 January 1995, Kazuyoshi Miura assisted Antonio Manicone's match-winning goal against Padova.

Kazuyoshi Miura returned to Verdy Kawasaki for the 1995 season and played with them until the end of the 1998 season.

Kazuyoshi Miura made another attempt at playing in Europe with Croatia Zagreb in 1999.

Kazuyoshi Miura returned to Japan following a brief trial with AFC Bournemouth, in the same year, and played with Kyoto Purple Sanga and Vissel Kobe.

In November 2015, Kazuyoshi Miura signed a new one-year contract with Yokohama FC at the age of 48.

In January 2017, Kazuyoshi Miura signed another new one-year contract with Yokohama, taking his professional career into his fifties.

On 30 December 2021, it was reported that Kazuyoshi Miura had reached an agreement to join the Suzuka Point Getters in the Japan Football League, the fourth tier of Japanese football.

Kazuyoshi Miura's debut meant that he broke the record of the oldest player to have ever featured in a JFL match at 55 years old, with a 12-year gap to the previous record holder.

Kazuyoshi Miura scored again from open play on 12 November 2022 at 55 years and 259 days old, breaking two more records.

On 26 January 2023, Portuguese club Oliveirense announced that Kazuyoshi Miura would be playing for the Liga Portugal 2 club on loan for the rest of the season.

Oliveirense announced that Kazuyoshi Miura passed the medical tests with flying colors, and launched an official presentation video of him featuring typical Japanese manga aesthetics and style.

At 55 years old, Kazuyoshi Miura became by a large margin the oldest professional player to ever sign a professional contract for any professional ball sports team in Portugal since volleyball player Miguel Maia renewed his contract with Sporting Clube de Portugal in 2018 at 47 years of age.

In June 2024, Kazuyoshi Miura returned on loan to Suzuka Point Getters, which had been rebranded to Atletico Suzuka.

On 29 September 2024, Kazuyoshi Miura broke the record for the oldest player to appear in JFL, at 57 years and 216 days old.

In September 1990, Kazuyoshi Miura was named as part of the Japan squad for the 1990 Asian Games.

Japan went on to win the tournament, Kazuyoshi Miura being named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.

Kazuyoshi Miura played at the 1994 Asian Games, and the 1995 King Fahd Cup.

In 1997, Kazuyoshi Miura scored fourteen times for Japan during qualification for the 1998 World Cup, leading the Samurai Blue to their first ever World Cup appearance.

In February 2000, Kazuyoshi Miura played for Japan for the first time in two years.

Kazuyoshi Miura played his last national team match later that year and finished with the second-most career goals in Japanese national team history with 55 goals in 89 matches.

Kazuyoshi Miura is one of only three men for Japan to score more than 50 goals for the teams, along with Kunishige Kamamoto and Shinji Okazaki.

Kazuyoshi Miura came off the bench and was involved in the buildup for the second goal scored by Nobuya Osodo.