National team stalwart Shunsuke Nakamura has reportedly agreed to end his eight-year spell in Europe and return to the J. League with former club Yokohama F. Marinos.
The former Reggina and Celtic star has struggled to settle into life in Spain with Espanyol despite being heralded as a genuine coup for the Barcelona-based club when his signature was announced last June. Nakamura made only his 13th La Liga appearance as an 86th-minute substitute during his side’s 2-1 defeat in Malaga last night, but having not even been named on the bench for the previous four matches, the 31-year-old was given permission earlier this month to begin talks with the club he first joined out of high school back in 1997.
The Marinos management have made little secret of their desire to bring Nakamura back ‘home’ for a number of years, but were left disappointed when he opted for Espanyol despite flying into Yokohama for talks last summer. Seven months on, negotiations with the player’s agent now finally appear to have succeeded, and a long-awaited return to the Nissan Stadium should be concluded within the week as soon as a transfer fee is agreed between the two clubs.
Nakamura spent three years in Serie A with Reggina before enjoying the most successful spell of his career in Scotland, helping Celtic to six major honours in four seasons and being named both Player and Footballer of the Year in 2007. Newly-appointed Marinos coach Kazushi Kimura has expressed the hope that a J. League return will allow the midfielder to recover his form ahead of this summer’s World Cup, where he will seek to add to his 93 Japan caps and 24 goals.
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The East Asian club season gets under way this week with the first round of matches in the 2010 AFC Champions League. J. League title-holders Kashima Antlers host Changchun Yatai of China tomorrow evening, Kawasaki Frontale visit Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma of Korea, while Wednesday’s matches see Gamba Osaka travel to Suwon Samsung Bluewings and first-time qualifiers Sanfrecce Hiroshima take on Shandong Luneng.
Kashima and Gamba will then meet for the Fuji Xerox Super Cup in Tokyo to officially open the Japanese season on Saturday.
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