Kazuyoshi Miura is 58 years old and probably the oldest professional footballer in the world. Even though he only plays in the fourth division, he is a hero in his homeland. This is also due to his stylish eccentricity – with a slight tendency towards the mafia.
There is a club in Japan’s fourth division, Atletico Suzuka, where a black Mercedes drives up before every home game. A man steps out in a three-piece pinstripe suit, his pocket square perfectly draped and shoes from Berluti: Kazuyoshi Miura, 58 years old. Two hours later, Miura will be on the sidelines in his jersey and will be substituted. They call him “King Kazu” here. And “King Kazu” plays by different rules. Not because he is still active as a professional footballer at the age of 58. But because he looks like he also has an assignment from the Corleone family to do.
Miura is perhaps the most colorful dog in football: He has an entire apartment just for his suits – in Tokyo, where the square meter costs as much as a small car elsewhere. Two rooms, no furniture, no kitchen. Clothes rack only. Hundreds, maybe a thousand suits.
Former national player Shinji Maezono stayed there overnight. Or better said: camping in a textile museum, as he describes it: “Amazing! How many hundred pieces are there?” Miura remains silent with the discretion of a Swiss banker: “There aren’t that many.” It is the modesty of a man who lists “mafia research” as his hobby. He is doing his doctorate on the textile semiotics of the Cosa Nostra.
He is obsessed with the film series “The Godfather”, has seen the work about mafia boss Don Corleone hundreds of times and knows every scene by heart. His philosophy of life is based on the belief that external appearances always have to be right – no matter how dirty the business is. In interviews he freely admits that his extravagant wardrobe is inspired by this film.
His former Yokohama teammate Matsui Daisuke recounted a surreal sight: in the middle of the industrial Honda workers’ town of Suzuka, where functionality and pragmatism reign, Miura appeared in a suit that looked so out of place, as if a piece of Sicily had materialized in Japan. “He stood there exuding Italian mafia elegance before taking the field and leading the team with total abandon. Unbelievable.” In this world of factories and workshops, Miura moves, looking as if he has come straight from a family gathering.
He even appears appropriately dressed for everyday errands in the supermarket. When asked, he replies with mock casualness that he “just happened to be wearing a suit” – as if you were casually wearing a tuxedo. When he went shopping in a tracksuit for once, an older cashier reacted with undisguised regret: “Without a suit today?”
In 1994 he became the first Japanese player in the Italian league
A musical ritual accompanies Miura in his favorite restaurants: the Godfather theme always sounds when he appears. At the Four Seasons Milan, this tradition has continued since his time at Genoa, where he played in 1994/1995 – a pianist plays the distinctive melody as soon as Miura enters the hotel. The same unwritten rule applies at his local restaurant in Tokyo’s Nishi-Azabu district. “When ‘Speak Softly Love’ comes on there, I’ll definitely be there,” he confirms.
Restaurant visitors experience cinematic performances there: the first bars of the famous film theme sound, they look up and see a 1.77 meter tall man standing there in his perfect mafia aesthetic and nodding at them as if the scene had come straight from director Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece.
Kazuyoshi Miura is much more than just a film buff with a penchant for all things leather. He is a Japanese football legend: Miura began his professional career at FC Santos in Brazil in 1986, after emigrating alone from Japan at the age of 15 – there was no future in Japanese football at the time. He trained and played in South America for eight years, returned as a superstar in 1990, won the first two championships with Verdy Kawasaki in the new J.League and was named the first J.League MVP and “Asian Footballer of the Year” in 1993.
In 1992, he almost single-handedly shot Japan to their first Asian Cup title in history and was named player of the tournament. In 1994, he spent a year in Italy’s Serie A with Genoa – as the first Japanese player in this league and with a legendary goal for his FC in the derby against Sampdoria. Although Miura ultimately didn’t succeed in sports in Genoa, he did learn how Italian men wear suits.
Miura played 89 international matches for Japan, scored 55 goals and became an idol. The surprising non-nomination for the 1998 World Cup was the big drama of his career. Miura then played in Croatia, Australia and Portugal, always sticking to his style and training regime – punctual, uncompromising, tailor-made. He has been playing for Suzuka in the fourth Japanese league since 2022. In 2025 he will continue to set world records as the oldest professional in international football – and remain true to himself both stylistically and athletically. “In Italy I learned that a man with style gets more respect than one with money,” he says.
Married for 32 years, father of two sons
Miura has been married to Risako, 57, a former model and now a jewelry designer, for 32 years. The couple has two sons: Ryota, 27, an actor who appeared in several Japanese TV productions. And Kota, 22, who has chosen a different path and fights brutal fights in mixed martial arts. Where his father goes to football in tailored suits, Kota competes in cages against other fighters.
He debuted with RIZIN, Japan’s largest MMA organization, in 2023 and has had three professional fights to date. His fighting name: “The Prince” – a reference to his father’s status as “King Kazu”. “My father taught me discipline,” says Kota, “to this day he still gets up at five in the morning and trains three times a day. If I were still doing that when I was 30, I would be happy.”
When Miura came on as a substitute in the 2-1 win against Yokohama in June 2025, he became the oldest active professional in the world. He scored his last goal in November 2022 with 55. Afterwards he said: “I want to improve my game even more.” A 58-year-old in Japan’s fourth division who seriously wants to improve? That either sounds like complete madness – or the most consistent form of professionalism. But actually what Miura does is performance. Miura no longer plays, he performs football. Every performance is theater, the suit is the costume.
Why is he doing this? Perhaps Miura understood that football is, at its core, entertainment. He provides better entertainment than 20-year-olds with generic Instagram hairstyles. Perhaps he knows that his club is not keeping him because of his sporting qualities, but because his name attracts sponsors and attracts fans to the Suzuka stadium. “Without Miura,” said former teammate Calvin Jong-a-Pin, “the club might no longer exist.” Or he just does it because he can. Because no one is stopping him. Because the world is crazy enough to allow him to strut around in the fourth division.
Somewhere in Tokyo there is an apartment full of suits. Somewhere in Suzuka a man runs across a course, too slow for this sport but perfectly dressed for this life. The Godfather theme plays into this. And “King Kazu”? He smiles. And probably thinks, “I’m going to make them an offer they can’t refuse.” At 58 years old. In the fourth league. In pinstripes. It doesn’t get any better.
