LONGER-THANMESSI’S-LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Fifty may be the entry age for walking football, but in Japan, Kazuyoshi Miura has kept on running. Despite being born in the same year as Roberto Baggio, Dan Petrescu and Jurgen Klopp (1967), King Kazu is still playing professionally at 50: only the second man to achieve the feat, after Stanley Matthews. He smashed the Stoke magician’s record back in March, too, becoming the oldest person to play in a pro game by turning out for Yokohama (his J-league 2 club for the last 12 years) in a 1-1 draw with V-varen Nagasaki. And he’s also now the oldest goalscorer in the history of the sport (“I had the vibes of a goal,” he said after netting at home to Thespakusatsu).

The extent of his legend at home in Japan can’t be overstated: to get an idea, imagine that another man born in ’67, Paul Gascoigne – who, like Kazuyoshi, was his country’s best player in the 1990s – was still doing the business for an English outfit in the second division. Kazu was Japan’s first star, the first Japanese winner of the Asian Player of the Year Award (1993) and scored the goals they required en route to World Cup 1998.

He debuted in 1986 – before our guest editor was even born – which makes this his 32nd consecutive season of action. He won 89 international caps and netted 55 goals, and even has a trademark dance.

So what’s his secret? “I just try to stay positive and keep fighting,” he says, humbly. And he’s not giving it the big one after going past Stan’s landmark. “I may have surpassed him in longevity but I won’t ever be able to match the career he had,” insists Kazuyoshi. And there’s no plan to retire yet. Blimey.