59-Year-Old Miura Scores First Goal In Nearly Four Years

Japanese football icon Kazuyoshi Miura, the world’s oldest professional footballer, has ended a nearly four-year goal drought after finding the net for Japanese third-tier club Fukushima United at the age of 59.

According to The Athletic, Miura, now in his 42nd professional season, scored Fukushima United’s fifth goal in their emphatic 7-0 victory over Iwaki Furukawa in the Emperor’s Cup.

“I wanted to live up to the expectations of everyone, including the manager, who had given me the opportunity to play until that point,” Miura said, via Fukushima’s website. “Above all, when I scored, even though we were already well ahead, it made me incredibly happy to see the players, staff and supporters all celebrating that single goal together with such joy.”

“King Kazu”, as he is known in Japan, last found the net whilst playing for Atletico Suzuka against FC Osaka in November 2022, scoring on July 25 to end a 34-match goal drought.

Miura played 89 times for Japan between 1990 and 2000, scoring 55 goals, and will continue his career until June 2027 after an extension of his contract at Fukushima was announced on June 26.

Miura is on loan at Fukushima from Yokohama FC, whom he joined as a 38-year-old in 2005. He has not featured for the J2 League side since 2020, having scored 27 goals in 298 appearances beforehand.

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Born in February 1967, Miura left Japan at the age of 15 to pursue becoming a professional footballer, joining the academy of Brazilian side Juventus da Mooca. He later played professionally in Brazil for Santos, Palmeiras and Coritiba, before returning to Japan in 1990. There, he played for Verdy Kawasaki for eight years, winning consecutive league titles after the launch of the J1 League in 1993, of which Miura was the face.

Miura became the first footballer of East Asian descent to play in Serie A when he joined Genoa on loan in 1994, returning to Verdy in 1995 where he scored 113 goals.

A brief and goalless spell in Europe for Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb then followed, before scoring 53 goals in six years for J1 League teams Kyoto Purple Sanga and Vissel Kobe ahead of his move to Yokohama.

Miura first broke the record for the world’s oldest professional player in 2017 aged 50 and 7 days, surpassing former England international Stanley Matthews’ record from 1965 by two days.