{"id":400582,"date":"2026-01-10T13:39:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T13:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/400582\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T13:39:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T13:39:07","slug":"at-58-the-worlds-oldest-professional-soccer-player-says-he-is-only-getting-better-with-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/400582\/","title":{"rendered":"At 58, the world&#8217;s oldest professional soccer player says he is only getting better with age"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TOKYO (AP) \u2014 Kazuyoshi Miura, the Japanese soccer player they call \u201cKing Kazu,\u201d says he\u2019s only getting better with age. <\/p>\n<p>If so, that should make him very, very good.<\/p>\n<p>Miura turns 59 next month. He\u2019s the globe\u2019s oldest professional soccer player, and on Friday he gave a news conference in Tokyo to celebrate joining his new team \u2014 third-division J-League club Fukushima United FC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy passion only grows the more I pursue it,\u201d Miura said. \u201cEven though I\u2019m getting older \u2014 I\u2019ll be 59 this year \u2014 I feel my passion is actually increasing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miura is moving on loan from Yokohama FC and spent last season on loan with fourth-division club Atletico Suzuka.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-fluid d-block w-100 p-0 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Japan_Oldest_Player_Soccer_30568.jpg\" alt=\"Next slide\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 512px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 512\/341;\"\/>Japanese soccer player Kazuyoshi Miura poses with uniform of third-division J-League team Fukushima United. during a press conference in Tokyo, Japan, on Jan. 9, 2026. (Yuya Shino\/Kyodo News via AP)<\/p>\n<p>Photo: <\/p>\n<p>He failed to score in seven matches with Suzuka.<\/p>\n<p>Miura has played professionally in Brazil, Italy, Croatia, Australia and Portugal. And of course in Japan. He made his debut in 1986 with Santos in Brazil, a club made famous by Brazilian star Pel\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>In 2017 at age 50, he became the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/miura-breaks-own-record-as-oldest-scorer-in-j-league-b30a6ac069e04a73ab715cbc02dcf5db\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">oldest player to score in a professional match<\/a>. That topped the record held by highly decorated England international Stanley Matthews.<\/p>\n<p>Miura was one of the first big names in Japanese soccer. He scored 55 goals in 89 appearance for Japan\u2019s national team in the 1990s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have a strong desire to play in matches and perform well,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I\u2019ll prepare thoroughly and give everything I have to accomplish that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP soccer: <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOKYO (AP) \u2014 Kazuyoshi Miura, the Japanese soccer player they call \u201cKing Kazu,\u201d says he\u2019s only getting better&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-400582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}