Yuto - The Bow

For those of an earlier generation, Japan and football had one connection: the adventures of Captain Tsubasa, known as Oliver Hutton in the West, the fictional young striker who would go on to play in Brazil before moving to Europe. The cartoon became a reality with Hidetoshi Nakata, the distinctive and talented attacking midfielder who made his name with Perugia and won the Scudetto with Roma, paving the way for a wave of Japanese players in Serie A at the turn of the millennium. One of them even made his way to Milano, via Emilia-Romagna.

Yuto Nagatomo, the last Japanese player in the history of the Nerazzurri, and also the first, turns 40 today.

He arrived through one of those winding transfer routes, in a loan swap with Cesena in January 2011. Davide Santon went to Emilia-Romagna, while Inter welcomed a Japanese full-back who was barely 1.70 metres tall, and powered by seemingly endless batteries that always left him with more energy than everyone else. Seven of his first nine goals for Inter came in the final half-hour, when he was still charging forward. The secret? Umeboshi. Japanese salted plums, a great remedy for fatigue. He ate them before every game. It was also the result of a thoroughly Eastern discipline, combined with a football education that arrived slightly later than usual. Yuto did not come through the academy at a major club. He played football at school until he was 20. At first, this was a tactical limitation; later, it became a strength. He moved in ways which were neither conventional nor codified, which led him into extreme situations. He would, for example, end up in the opposition box, more often than you might expect, even scoring a header at Marassi in 2011. It was the kind of game you can picture, with Nagatomo scoring 1-0, despite almost always being the shortest player on the team. Or right on the edge of the box, as in Turin the following year, when, at the end of a scrappy but determined move, he set up Rodrigo Palacio for Inter’s final goal in a 3-1 win away to Juventus, their first victory there in nine years. Or when he had the courage, or perhaps the recklessness, to take the decisive penalty; Inter vs Pordenone, a one-off Coppa Italia tie, an astonishing 0-0 after 120 minutes. It was the Japanese player who spared Inter the embarrassment in a half-frozen San Siro, called upon by the entire stadium to take the final penalty. “Yuto, Yuto, Yuto.” It was an inevitable goal which secured a place in the next round.

Nagatomo really did become Captain Tsubasa, both because, like the hero of the manga and anime, he made it to San Siro, and because he actually appeared in the manga, or rather, in Holly and Benji. In 2019, he even dubbed himself. Because sometimes it is hard to tell fantasy from reality.

Happy Birthday, Yuto-San.