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Yuji Nakazawa
中澤佑二
	Nakazawa playing for Japan in 2008
Personal information
Full name	Yuji Nakazawa
Date of birth	25 February 1978 (age 46)
Place of birth	Yoshikawa, Saitama, Japan
Height	1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Position(s)	Defender
Youth career
1990–1992	Yoshikawa Higashi Junior High School
1993–1995	Misato Kogyo High School
1996–1997	América Mineiro
Senior career*
Years	Team
1999–2001	Tokyo Verdy
2002–2018	Yokohama F. Marinos
Total
International career
1999–2000	Japan U-23
1999–2010	Japan
Medal record
Yokohama F. Marinos
Representing Japan
AFC Asian Cup
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Yuji Nakazawa (中澤佑二, Nakazawa Yūji, born 25 February 1978) is a Japanese former professional footballer who played as a centre back for J1 League side Tokyo Verdy and Yokohama F. Marinos.^[2] He was the formerly the captain of the Japan national team. His nickname is "Bomber" because of his distinctive hairstyle.

Nakazawa is one of only seven Japanese players to reach 100 caps for his national team and he is the third highest number of J.League all-time appearances in history with 593 appearances. Nakazawa also played for 178 consecutive matches for Yokohama F. Marinos from July 2013 to August 2018

Club career

Youth

Nakazawa started playing football for his home country. He played for Yoshikawa Higashi Junior High School and Misato Technology High School, but attracted no scouts' eyes. Determined to be a pro, he left for Brazil to improve his football skills and trained with América Mineiro. During his time there, he won the Campeonato Mineiro in the junior category and played a key role in coach Ricardo Drubscky's squad.

Tokyo Verdy

After a year, he returned to Japan and joined Verdy Kawasaki (later Tokyo Verdy) in 1998 as a trainee, which meant he received no compensation. He impressed the club enough to win a full professional contract the following year.

His first J1 League appearance came on 13 March 1999 against Cerezo Osaka at Todoroki Athletics Stadium. He scored his first league goal on 10 April 1999 against Nagoya Grampus Eight also at Todoroki. That year, he received the J.League Young Player of the Year award and was selected for the J.League Team of the Year.

Yokohama F. Marinos

Nakazawa was transferred to Yokohama F. Marinos in 2002 and contributed to the club winning two consecutive J1 League championships in 2003 and 2004.^[3] He was selected as the Most Valuable Player of the league in 2004.^[4] He played more than 30 games every season from 2007 except 2010 season.^[2] He also played full time for 178 consecutive games from July 2013 to August 2018. This is a J.League record except goalkeeper.^[5]^[6] However he could not play at all in the match from August 2018 except last match in 2018 season.^[7]

On 8 January 2019, Yokohama F. Marinos announced his retirement at 2018 season.^[8] He was 40 years old.

International career

Philippe Troussier called him up for Japan national team. Nakazawa played in Olympic qualifiers as well as the finals in Sydney. Troussier promoted him to a full international. His first international appearance came on 8 September 1999 in a friendly against Iran at the International Stadium Yokohama.^[9] He scored his first goal on 13 February 2000 in an Asian Cup qualifier against Singapore in Macau.^[9]

He was a member of the Japan team who won the 2000 AFC Asian Cup in Lebanon.^[9] He played three games in the competition.^[9] However, he was not selected for the 2002 FIFA World Cup finals as Yutaka Akita was preferred.

Under new national manager Zico, he partnered with Tsuneyasu Miyamoto at the back line. He participated in the 2004 AFC Asian Cup finals.^[9] He played in all the Japan matches and scored three goals, one of which was a stoppage time equaliser in the semi-final against Bahrain, and Japan went on to win the title again.

He also played in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany but the team failed to proceed to the knockout stage. After the tournament, he announced his retirement from the international football at the age of 28.^[10] However, six months later, he withdrew his decision and Ivica Osim played him in a friendly against Peru on 24 March 2007.^[11]

He played in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup finals but this time the team failed to defend the title and finished 4th in the tournament.

On 14 February 2010, Nakazawa made his 100th appearance for the Japan national team against South Korea in the final match of the 2010 East Asian Football Championship at Tokyo National Stadium. Nakazawa becomes only the third Japanese player, following Masami Ihara and Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, to reach 100 caps for his country. Later that year, Yasuhito Endo also reached 100 caps for Japan.

On 30 May 2010, Nakazawa scored an own-goal in a friendly match against England to give England the lead; his defensive partner Marcus Tulio Tanaka had already scored an own goal to draw England level with Japan. The match ended 2–1 to England.

In the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Nakazawa played all four of Japan's games on their way to the round of 16 and knockout by penalties to Paraguay.

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition^[12]
Club	Season	League			Emperor's Cup		J.League Cup		Asia		Other^[a]		Total
Club	Season	Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Tokyo Verdy^[b]	1999	J1 League	28	1	3	1	2	0	–		–		33	2
	2000		29	4	2	0	3	0	–		–		34	4
	2001		26	0	0	0	2	0	–		–		28	0
	Total		83	5	5	1	7	0	–		–		95	6
Yokohama F. Marinos	2002	J1 League	27	1	2	0	0	0	–		–		29	1
	2003		29	4	2	0	7	2	–		–		38	6
	2004		27	1	1	0	0	0	2	0	3	0	33	1
	2005		27	3	1	0	3	0	4	0	1	0	36	3
	2006		23	1	3	0	2	0	–		–		28	1
	2007		32	2	1	0	7	0	–		–		40	2
	2008		33	4	3	1	3	0	–		–		39	5
	2009		32	3	1	0	3	0	–		–		36	3
	2010		22	0	0	0	2	1	–		–		24	1
	2011		33	1	5	0	5	0	–		–		43	1
	2012		33	3	5	0	3	0	–		–		41	3
	2013		34	1	3	1	8	0	–		–		45	2
	2014		34	2	0	0	2	1	5	0	1	0	39	3
	2015		34	0	3	0	3	0	–		–		40	0
	2016		34	3	5	0	6	0	–		–		45	3
	2017		34	1	2	0	0	0	–		–		36	1
	2018		22	1	1	0	2	0	–		–		25	1
	Total		510	31	38	2	56	4	11	0	5	0	620	37
Career total			593	36	43	3	63	4	11	0	5	0	715	43

^ Includes Japanese Super Cup and J.League Championship.
^ "Verdy Kawasaki" until 2001

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year^[13]
National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Japan	1999	1	0
	2000	6	2
	2001	2	0
	2002	1	0
	2003	4	0
	2004	15	5
	2005	12	1
	2006	12	1
	2007	13	2
	2008	16	4
	2009	14	2
	2010	14	0
Total		110	17

Scores and results list Japan's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Nakazawa goal.

List of international goals scored by Yuji Nakazawa^[9]
No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Result	Competition
1	13 February 2000	Macau, China	Singapore	3–0	2000 AFC Asian Cup qualification
2	13 February 2000	Macau, China	Singapore	3–0	2000 AFC Asian Cup qualification
3	9 June 2004	Saitama, Japan	India	7–0	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
4	9 June 2004	Saitama, Japan	India	7–0	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
5	24 July 2004	Chongqing, China	Thailand	4–1	2004 AFC Asian Cup
6	24 July 2004	Chongqing, China	Thailand	4–1	2004 AFC Asian Cup
7	3 August 2004	Jinan, China	Bahrain	4–3	2004 AFC Asian Cup
8	7 August 2005	Daegu, South Korea	South Korea	1–0	2005 East Asian Football Championship
9	10 February 2006	San Francisco, United States	United States	2–3	Friendly
10	1 June 2007	Fukuroi, Japan	Montenegro	2–0	2007 Kirin Cup
11	25 July 2007	Hanoi, Vietnam	Saudi Arabia	2–3	2007 AFC Asian Cup
12	28 January 2008	Tokyo, Japan	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3–0	Friendly
13	6 February 2008	Saitama, Japan	Thailand	4–1	2010 FIFA World Cup qualification
14	2 June 2008	Yokohama, Japan	Oman	3–0	FIFA World Cup qualification
15	14 June 2008	Bangkok, Thailand	Thailand	3–0	FIFA World Cup qualification
16	4 February 2009	Tokyo, Japan	Finland	5–1	Friendly
17	8 October 2009	Shizuoka, Japan	Hong Kong	6–0	2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification