Nakata was born in Otsu on July 9, 1979. After graduating from Teikyo High School, he joined J1 League club Kashima Antlers in 1998. Japan national team players Masashi Motoyama, Mitsuo Ogasawara and Hitoshi Sogahata are Nakata's contemporaries. He debuted as defensive midfielder in first season and the club won the champions 1998 J1 League. From 2000, he became a regular player and constituted midfielder with Yasuto Honda, Bismarck, Motoyama and Ogasawara. In 2000, the club won all three major title in Japan J1 League, J.League Cup and Emperor's Cup. In 2001, the club won J1 League and he was also elected Best Eleven. the club also won 2002 J.League Cup. Nakata moved from Japanese giants Kashima Antlers to France at the start of 2005 when former Japan national team manager Philippe Troussier, then the Olympique Marseille coach, signed him in a deal. After an understandably unhappy season in France (Troussier was sacked just a few months later), the frozen-out Nakata jumped at the chance to leave and by early 2006 had moved to Switzerland's top team Basel where he played as a defender. Nakata returned to Kashima Antlers in July 2008. He played at many defensive position, defensive midfielder, left side-back and center-back. The club won the champions 2008, 2009 J1 League, 2010 Emperor's Cup, 2011 and 2012 J.League Cup. He retired end of 2014 season.
Although Nakata played as defensive midfielder at the club, he played as left-back of three backs defense at U-20, U-23 and Senior national team under manager Philippe Troussier. In April 1999, Nakata played for U-20 Japan at 1999 World Youth Championship. He played all 7 matches with defender Kazuki Teshima and Shigeki Tsujimoto, and Japan won the 2nd place. On February 5, 2000, Nakata debuted for Japan national team against Mexico. In September, he was selected U-23 Japan for 2000 Summer Olympics. Although he played as regular player, he got hurt in third match against Brazil and he could not play after the match. In 2001 and 2002, Nakata played all matches for Japan including 2001 Confederations Cup and 2002 World Cup. At Confederations Cup, Japan won the 2nd place. At 2002 World Cup, he played full-time all 4 matches. After 2002 World Cup, Nakata played as defensive midfielder under new manager Zico. Although his opportunity to play decreased, he was elected Japan for many competition, 2003, 2005 Confederations Cup, 2004 Asian Cup and 2006 World Cup. At 2004 Asian Cup, he played 4 matches and scored 2 goals in semifinal and final, and Japan won the champions. He played 57 games and scored 2 goals for Japan until 2007.
266||33||31||6||31||4||19||0||347||43
9||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||3||0||13||0
62||3||7||1||colspan="2"|-||12||0||81||4
337||36||39||7||31||4||34||0||441||47
!Total||57||2
Hayato Okanaka
Hayato Okanaka (born 26 September 1968) is a former Japanese football player.
240||0||13||0||35||0||288||0
240||0||13||0||35||0||288||0
Antonio Chimenti
Antonio Chimenti (born 30 June 1970) is an Italian football player. He plays for Juventus.
367||0
367||0
Vítor Baía
Vítor Baía (born 15 October 1969) is a former Portuguese football player. He has played for Portugal national team.
406||0
39||0
445||0
!Total||80||0
Alain Giresse
Alain Giresse (born 2 August 1952) is a former French football player. He has played for France national team.
585||164
585||164
!Total||47||5
Jean Tigana
Jean Tigana (born 23 June 1955) is a former French football player. He has played for France national team.
487||36
487||36
!Total||52||1
Johan Neeskens
Johan Neeskens (born 15 September 1951) is a former Dutch football player. He has played for Netherlands national team.
199||34
141||35
104||17
24||5
468||91
!Total||49||17
Dirk Kuyt
Dirk Kuyt (born 22 July 1980) is a Dutch football player. He plays for Liverpool and Netherlands national team.
261||122||24||18||colspan="2"|-||19||7||304||147
104||27||7||2||2||0||34||11||147||40
365||149||31||20||2||0||53||18||451||187
!Total||59||13
Ronald Koeman
Ronald Koeman (born 21 March 1963) is a retired Dutch football player. He has played for Netherlands national team.
341||126
192||67
533||193
!Total||78||14
Michael Reiziger
Michael Reiziger (born 3 May 1973) is a former Dutch football player. He has played for Netherlands national team.
131||10
10||0
173||0
22||1
336||11
!Total||72||1
Gheorghe Popescu
Gheorghe Popescu (born 9 October 1967) is a former Romanian football player. He has played for Romania national team.
145||19
108||23
23||3
68||9
106||5
28||3
14||1
492||63
!Total||115||16
Louis van Gaal
Louis van Gaal (born 8 August 1951) is a former Dutch football player and international club manager. He was the manager of Manchester United.
291||27
42||7
333||34
Dick Advocaat
Dick Advocaat (born 27 September 1947) is a Dutch football coach and former player. He coaches the Belgian football team. In his career as a football player he played at Den Haag, Roda, VVV Venlo, Chicago Sting, Sparta Rotterdam, Berchem Sport, Utrecht. Advocaat started coacing at a small club called DSVP, later on he coached the Dutch football team and others.
Choi Soon-ho
Choi Soon-Ho (born 10 January 1962) is a former South Korean football player. He has played for Korea Republic national team.
100||23
18||2
118||25
!Total||94||30
Masayuki Yanagisawa
Masayuki Yanagisawa (born 27 August 1979) is a Japanese football player. He plays for Yokohama.
186||5||12||0||8||0||1||0||207||5
186||5||12||0||8||0||1||0||207||5
Takahito Soma
Takahito Soma (born 10 December 1981) is a Japanese football player. He plays for Marítimo.
On 12 January 2009, after a three-year contract with the Urawa Red Diamonds had come to an end, Soma decided to forgo contract extension talks to pursue a career overseas in Europe. On 29 January 2009 Soma signed with Marítimo of the Portuguese Liga, on a one-and-a-half year contract. At the end of this contract, he left Portugal and signed with German second division club Energie Cottbus.
After six seasons with Vissel Kobe, he announced his retirement.
112||6||12||0||28||1||6||1||158||8
10||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||10||0
122||6||12||0||28||1||6||1||168||8
Yoshinari Takagi
Yoshinari Takagi (born 20 May 1979) is a Japanese football player. He plays for Nagoya Grampus Eight.
198||1||13||0||22||0||1||0||234||1
198||1||13||0||22||0||1||0||234||1
Atsushi Yoneyama
Yoneyama was born in Utsunomiya on November 20, 1976. When he was a Komazawa University student, he joined Verdy Kawasaki (later "Tokyo Verdy") in 1998. He became a regular player as center-back among the teams where generations change. In 2004, the club won the champions J.League Cup. However, the club was relegated to J2 League in 2005. He moved to Kawasaki Frontale in 2006. However, there were few opportunities to play, so he moved to Nagoya Grampus Eight (later "Nagoya Grampus") in 2007. In 2009, he moved to his local club Tochigi SC in J2 League. He left the club end of 2010 season and announced his retirement in November 2011.
In February 2000, Yoneyama was selected the Japan national team for 2000 Asian Cup qualification. At this qualification, on February 16 he debuted against Brunei.
298||11||23||3||42||2||363||16
298||11||23||3||42||2||363||16
!Total||1||0
Lee Gang-Jin
Lee Gang-Jin (born 25 April 1986), also romanized at Lee Kang-Jing, is a South Korean professional athlete. He is best known as an association football player. He was a member of the Korean national team.
60||1||3||0||20||1||83||2
24||1||4||1||4||0||32||2
84||2||7||1||24||1||115||4
!Total||1||0
Kenta Togawa
Kenta Togawa (born 23 June 1981) is a Japanese football player. He plays for Yokohama.
134||4||5||0||13||0||2||0||154||4
134||4||5||0||13||0||2||0||154||4
Motif
In art, a motif is a repeated pattern, image, or theme. Paisley designs are called motifs. Many designs in mosques in Islamic culture are motifs. Two major Roman motifs are egg and tongue, and ball and reel.
Motifs may have iconographic significance within a work of art.