The crowning of King Kazu
The rise of Japan's greatest footballer
Today’s article focuses on the rise of Japan’s arguably first great football player, and how his immortality has endured. While his story is so great that it can be enjoyed by both sports fans and non-fans alike, for any readers with extreme football aversions, feel free to skip this one and come back after the football.
For everyone else, please welcome the life and times of the one and only…
Kazuyoshi Miura.
The Young King
How does one become king?
In most monarchies, one gets the job from their papa, king before them. For those seeking the kingdom of football, many look to the continent of South America. Within this vast landmass, only one has been bestowed with the title of “O Rei” or “The King”: Pelé, seen by many as the greatest of all time.
For young Kazuyoshi Miura, the memories of a rollicking 1970 Seleção (Brazil National Football Team) starring Pelé at the pinnacle of footballing excellence was a core memory. Back then he was only three, but his father’s home-recorded footage of the games would be the foundation on which how he would dedicate his life’s work. Little did Kazu know that he would one day conquer something no other athlete has dreamed of, and would be in his own rarified territory even beyond “O Rei” Pelé.
Boys from Brazil
With no Japanese league to try his passion, Kazu did the next best thing and moved to Brazil at 15 to pursue his destiny of becoming a footballer, signing on to CA Juventus. Unlike the famous original team dominant in Italy, CA Juventus was the product of an immigrating Italian Count who decided to found a team with his employees. After initially naming the team after himself, decided to be more of a team player and called it Juventus, after his own boyhood team.
A little insultingly, Pelé’s fondness for CA Juventus came from it being the team against which he scored “his most beautiful goal” (Fun fact: Upon finding out that there was no televised record of a random 1959 Brazilian soccer game, Pelé decided to recreate it from memory in a computer animation).
While this was Kazu’s first youth team, there is only one club team that truly matters if you idolise Pelé: Santos, his hometown club in Sao Paulo. Here Kazu signed his first professional contract, played his first professional game and…not much else. After signing with other Brazilian teams, including ones that sound more like expensive liquor like Matsubara, CRB, XV de Jaú, and Coritiba, Kazu decided playing with 6 teams across 4 years was enough Brazilian football.
It was time to come home.
J(esus)-league Superstar
Welcome to the 1990s! As discussed in the last Japanese football post, this was when Japanese football was finally becoming professionalised.
[link here]
Kazu was welcomed back as someone who had paid his dues across in the land of football and joined Tokyo team Verdy Kawasaki, which would go on win not just the next league, but the three after as well. Kazu joined the national team, scored his first Japan goal, and was named the J1 Player of the Year. He even won Japan’s first international trophy by being the best player in Asia.
Kazu had truly arrived on the national stage, and was the face of Japanese football in the early 1990s. Football was becoming a national obsession, so fans eagerly awaited Japan’s potential first entry into the World Cup in 1994.
Agony of Doha
With a title like this, you might guess what’s about to happen. Let me set the scene of this sinking airship, so you can relive that falling-out-of-the-sky feeling. The year is 1993; the first year of J-League has wrapped up, with Miura winning MVP. Elsewhere, Radiohead release their first album and dinosaurs become relevant for the first time in millions of years with Jurassic Park’s release.
Back to the matter at foot: Japan need a win on the final day to guarantee qualification into their first ever World Cup. As first-placers on the last day they sit in the best position, but almost everyone has some pathway to qualifying if the results roll the right way. Japan face Iraq. The game was held at neither country; instead, in an early instance of Qatari footballing frenzy, every final qualifying match in Asia was held concurrently within the capital city of Doha. Simultaneously playing were highly contentious games between political rivals South Korea against North Korea, and Saudi Arabia vs Iran.
The Japanese game opened as well as possible for Japan. Within 5 minutes, partner forward Hasegawa receives a high quality cross and rattles the crossbar. Main man and feature subject King Kazu receives the free header to open up the scoring. Japan would manage the game superbly during the first half, playing keep away and retaining the scoreline at 1-0.
Elsewhere, the scores were favourable with South Korea deadlocked against neighbours North Korea 0-0 and Saudi Arabia ahead of Iran 2-1. At this point, Japan could afford a draw without troubling the magical qualification.
Despite a goal for Iraq early in the second half, Japan responded with one more, updating the score to 2-1. It had reached the 90 minute mark, with only added time to be played. News from across town trickled in. The Saudis had somehow survived an onslaught and beat Iran 4-3, securing their very first entrance into the World Cup. South Korea’s capitalist plans had succeeded and defeated their Northern rivals. This meant a draw was no longer good enough; Japan needed to maintain their one point lead.
You know what’s coming up. In the last touch of the game, a corner kick hits the ball high and... One Jaffar Omran becomes etched in Japanese history. An Iraqi team that thought they had been defeated roared once more, along with the qualifying South Koreans across town. It was not simply a kick in the goal, but a kick to the stomach of every single Japanese player and fan.
If you truly want to experience national heartbreak, the final minutes of the below clip may capture that sentiment in stunning 1993 definition. The collapse of every player in blue as they realise their singular dream is lost in that one moment is truly devastating.
To this day, Japanese fans chant Never Forget Doha (ドーハを忘れるな). This was the defeat that followed the entire team, known as the Class of Doha.
This event is remembered differently elsewhere. It is commemorated by Koreans globally as the Miracle of Doha (도하의 기적), with Jaffar Omran being hailed as a national hero in 1994 as he visited South Korea for the first time. The Iraqi embassy was deluged with hundreds of Korean faxes of support and even offers of donations for the struggling football team.
This would be the singular moment that defines a career. Yet for Kazu and his unmerry band of Samurai Blue, it was just the beginning.
Where is Kazu now?
Still playing football.