is a Japanese football player. He played for the Japan national team.

Biography
Nakamura was born in Yokohama on June 24, 1978. After graduating from Toko Gakuen High School, he joined J1 League club Yokohama Marinos (later Yokohama F. Marinos) in 1997. He played as regular player from first season. In 2000, the club won the 2nd place in J1 League. He was selected "J.League MVP" and "Japanese Footballer of the Year". In summer 2002, he moved to Serie A club Reggina. In 2005, he moved to Scottish Premier League club Celtic. The club won the champions 3 times in 2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08. In 2007, he was selected "Scottish Player of the Year" award. In 2009, he moved to Spanish La Liga club Espanyol. In February 2010, he returned to Japan and joined his first club Yokohama F. Marinos. In 2013, the club won the 2nd place in J1 League and he was selected "J.League MVP" and "Japanese Footballer of the Year". In 2017, he moved to Júbilo Iwata. In 2019, he could hardly play in the match and moved to J2 League club Yokohama FC in July. The club won the 2nd place in 2019 and was promoted to J1 from 2020.

In February 2000, Nakamura was selected the Japan national team for 2000 Asian Cup qualifier. At this qualifier, he debuted against Singapore on February 13. He played many matches as regular player in 2000. He was also selected the Japan U-23 national team for 2000 Summer Olympics. In October, he played at 2000 Asian Cup and Japan won the champions. However he could hardly play in the match from 2001 and he was not selected Japan for 2002 World Cup. After the 2002 World Cup, he became a regular player under new manager Zico and played as central player for Japan for a long time. In 2004, he participated in the 2004 Asian Cup which Japan the champions. He played all 6 matches and scored 2 goals, and he was selected MVP award. He was selected Japan for 2006 World Cup. He played all 3 matches and scored 1 goal. In 2007, he played in the 2007 Asian Cup, but this time the team failed to defend the title and finished the 4th place. In 2010, he was selected Japan for 2010 World Cup. However he lost his position just before 2010 World Cup and he played only one match as substitute. After the 2010 World Cup, Nakamura retired from national team. He played 98 games and scored 24 goals for Japan.

Statistics

|-
|1997||rowspan="2"|Yokohama Marinos||rowspan="2"|J1 League||27||5||1||0||3||0||colspan="2"|-||31||5
|-
|1998||33||9||0||0||4||1||colspan="2"|-||37||10
|-
|1999||rowspan="4"|Yokohama F. Marinos||rowspan="4"|J1 League||26||7||3||1||4||0||colspan="2"|-||33||8
|-
|2000||30||5||2||0||4||1||colspan="2"|-||36||6
|-
|2001||24||3||1||0||6||2||colspan="2"|-||31||5
|-
|2002||8||4||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||8||4

|-
|2002/03||rowspan="3"|Reggina||rowspan="3"|Serie A||32||7||4||1||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||36||8
|-
|2003/04||16||2||2||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||18||2
|-
|2004/05||33||2||0||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||33||2

|-
|2005/06||rowspan="4"|Celtic||rowspan="4"|Premier League||33||6||1||0||4||0||colspan="2"|-||38||6
|-
|2006/07||37||9||5||0||0||0||8||2||50||11
|-
|2007/08||26||6||4||1||0||0||6||1||36||8
|-
|2008/09||32||8||2||0||3||1||5||0||42||9

|-
|2009/10||Espanyol||La Liga||13||0||2||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||15||0

|-
|2010||rowspan="7"|Yokohama F. Marinos||rowspan="7"|J1 League||32||5||2||1||1||0||colspan="2"|-||35||6
|-
|2011||24||4||5||2||2||0||colspan="2"|-||31||6
|-
|2012||31||6||5||2||3||0||colspan="2"|-||39||8
|-
|2013||33||10||5||1||10||2||colspan="2"|-||48||13
|-
|2014||32||3||0||0||1||0||5||0||38||3
|-
|2015||19||3||2||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||22||3
|-
|2016||19||4||3||1||1||1||colspan="2"|-||23||6
|-
|2017||rowspan="3"|Júbilo Iwata||rowspan="3"|J1 League||30||5||1||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||31||5
|-
|2018||16||0||0||0||2||0||colspan="2"|-||18||0
|-
|2019||2||0||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||2||0
|-
|2019||rowspan="3"|Yokohama FC||J2 League||10||1||1||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||11||1
|-
|2020||rowspan="2"|J1 League||10||0||colspan="2"|-||0||0||colspan="2"|-||10||0
|-
|2021||||||||||||||||||||
406||74||31||8||42||7||5||0||484||89
81||11||6||1||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||87||12
128||29||12||1||7||1||19||3||166||34
13||0||2||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||15||0
628||114||51||10||49||8||24||3||752||135
|}

|-
|2000||16||3
|-
|2001||1||0
|-
|2002||6||2
|-
|2003||8||4
|-
|2004||15||3
|-
|2005||11||3
|-
|2006||6||1
|-
|2007||10||4
|-
|2008||9||2
|-
|2009||11||2
|-
|2010||5||0
|-
!Total||98||24
|}

References

Other websites

1978 births
Living people
Footballers from Kanagawa Prefecture
Japan international footballers
J1 League players
J2 League players
Yokohama F. Marinos players
Júbilo Iwata players
Yokohama FC players
2006 FIFA World Cup players
2010 FIFA World Cup players
2003 FIFA Confederations Cup players
2005 FIFA Confederations Cup players
Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics
2000 AFC Asian Cup players
AFC Asian Cup-winning players
Sportspeople from Yokohama