Shunsuke Nakamura has retired

Shunsuke Nakamuraone of the Japanese footballers who achieved the most success in Europe with teams such as Celtic or the spanishwill retire at the end of this season at age 44.

The midfielder, who currently plays for Yokohama FCin the second division of the Japanese league (J-League) but who achieved promotion this Sunday, will finish the season with his team before leaving professional football, sources close to the athlete confirmed to local media today.

Nakamura made his professional debut in 1997 under the Spanish coach Xavier Azkargorta at the japanese club Yokohama Marineand in 2002 he moved to the Italian Serie A with the Regina Calciumin which he scored 11 goals.

In 2005, he was transferred to Glasgow Celtic, where he became a star for the Scottish team and finished his first season with 38 appearances, six goals and ten assists, helping his team to the titles of premier league Scottish Championship and the Scottish League Cup.

After completing his four-year contract with Celticthe Japanese went to La Liga at the same time spanishalthough he had not yet fully adapted to Spanish football for cultural and language reasons, according to his coach at the time.

After that, the footballer was transferred again in 2010 to the Japanese league, where he played in his debut team, the Yokohama Marineand then to Jubilee Iwata and, finally, the Yokohama FCsince 2019.

At the international level, Nakamura is representative Japanese in the 2006 and 2010 World Cups, as well as the 2003 and 2005 Confederations Cup and the 2000, 2004 and 2007 Asian Cups.

Although the athlete has yet to confirm what his next professional step will be, he has previously expressed his interest in becoming a coach in the future.