In 2015, Ozu was once again named best player at the AFC Championship and was also joint top scorer. He also joined the FC Barcelona team at that year's Mundialito de Clubes which the Spanish team won and opened his own institution for children, the "Copacabana Beach Soccer School", in Okinawa. 2016 saw Ozu branch further into playing for European clubs; he became the second Japanese to play in the Italian National League, for Viareggio, winning Europe's top club prize, the Euro Winners Cup, with the Tuscan side that season. He has since had spells at FC City and Lokomotiv Moscow of Russia, Sporting CP of Portugal and Falfala Kfar Qassem of Israel. In 2017, Ozu joined the first J-League club to establish a beach soccer branch, Tokyo Verdy, who he would go on to win multiple JFA League titles with. He also became an ambassador of the JFA's 'Teacher of Dreams' project, touring schools across Japan, explaining to children how he has overcome problems in his life to achieve the successes in his field. The AFC described Ozu's performance as "outstanding" as he again won the best player and top scorer awards of the AFC Championship, this time the 2019 edition, which Japan won for the first time under his leadership. 2019 continued to mark major international landmarks for Ozu as he reached a century of goals scored in a 7–2 win over Uruguay at the World Beach Games and also earned his 100th cap at the Intercontinental Cup a month later. Despite crucially missing his attempt in the penalty shootout against Portugal in the semi-final, Ozu ultimately inspired Japan to a positive 2019 World Cup performance of fourth place, their joint best ever finish at the World Cup matching 2005, and he also won the prestigious Golden Ball (best player) award at the tournament.