Kazuyoshi Miura during a 2020 match with Yokohama FC. Photo: Koji Watanabe/Getty Images
Kazuyoshi Miura, a Japanese striker known as "King Kazu," has signed with the Suzuka Point Getters of the fourth-tier Japan Football League.
Why it matters: He turns 55 next month!
Catch up quick: Kazu's career began in 1986 with Brazilian side Santos, the first of 15 clubs he's played for across five countries: Brazil, Italy, Croatia, Australia and Japan.
- Miura was the face of Japan's top-tier J1 League when it launched in 1993, and he led Verdy Kawasaki to the first two championships.
- After a brief European sojourn that saw him become the first Japanese player in Serie A (Genoa), Kazu returned home and joined Yokohama FC, where he played from 2005 to 2021.
- Now he joins the Point Getters, where he'll be coached by his older brother, Yasutoshi, a former player himself.
The big picture: Miura still holds the Guinness World Record for oldest goalscorer. He also starred for the Japanese national team, earning 89 caps and scoring 55 goals — second-most in the nation's history.
He is intrinsically tied up with the birth and development of professional football in Japan ... He has achieved a god-like status, in some ways I guess similar to [Diego] Maradona in Argentina.— Sean Carroll, a sports journalist who covers Japanese soccer, via BBC
The bottom line: When he was controversially omitted from Japan's World Cup squad in 1998, the 31-year-old Miura was described in some reports as a "veteran." 24 years later, he's still going.
Go deeper: The world's oldest soccer players (ESPN)