National
Meet Kazuyoushi Miura, Oldest Professional Footballer
By Sola Omoniyi, Lagos
Kazuyoushi Miura is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a forward for Liga Portugal 2 club Oliveirense on loan from J1 league Club Yokohama.
Miura is known as the oldest professional football player in history to score in a professional match.
In 1990, Miura played for the Japan national team, and he was the first Japanese recipient of the IFFHS Asia’s Footballer of the Year award in the year 2000.
Miura holds the distinction having played professional football in five separate decades ( 1980s-2020s ).
At the age of 15, Miura travelled to Brazil from Japan, where he became a professional player. He was signed to the youth wing of Sao Paulo of Juventus and he professionally joined Santos in 1986 until he returned to Japan in 1990.
In the year 1994, Miura was the first Japanese football player to play in Italy, he played 21 times and scored one goal.
At the age of 53 years, on August 5, 2020, Miura started in a J League Cup match against Sagan Tosu, which made him become the oldest football player on the pitch in Japan’s league cup competition.
It was gathered that on 30 December 2022, he reached an agreement to join Suzuka Point Getters in the Japan Football League, on March 2022, at the age of 55, Miura made his debut for the Point Getters in the first round which generated over 4000 spectators watching his debut.
This debut broke the record of the oldest player to have ever featured in a JFL match at 55 years. Miura’s presence at the club leads Point Getters to have features in nine of ten matches with the highest number of viewers which generated over 16,000 with a 1-0 win against Criacao Shinjuku. He became the oldest player to score at age 55.
Portuguese club, Oliveirense announced on 26 January 2023, that Miura would be playing for Liga Portugal 2 club for the rest of the season.
On April 2023, Kazuyoushi Miura made his debut for UD Oliveirense in an official Liga Portugal 2 match at the age of 56.
Miura has won several awards, Which include, the Asian Footballer of the year:1992, J League MVP Award: in 1993, J League Best XI: in 1996, J1 League 20th Anniversary Team: in 2013, J League Top Scorer: in 1996, AFC Asian Cup Most Valuable Player: 1992, as so many more.
