You know, here at J. League Regista, I tried to be a “jack-of-all-trades”. It’s nice to cover a lot around Japanese football, whether it’s the top-flight or the regional leagues. Whether it’s past, present, or the future. Whether we’re talking of a Japanese star rising up from a remote place of the country, or a foreign player who found his home in the Land of the Rising Sun. That’s why our columns tend to cover many topics, but something was missing.
I’ve always been fascinated by the players who had immense class, something intangible you can’t really measure with today’s football metrics. To give you an example, the likes of Juan Roman Riquelme, Gheorghe Hagi, Manuel Rui Costa, or Enzo Francescoli – those no. 10s who had a great vision on the pitch, and they were maybe “floor generals”, but I think we can all agree they wouldn’t have shone today as bright as they used to be, because of how football has changed (certainly not because of their skills).
With a more muscular and analytical football, with flashy rhythms, slow-paced players are even more appreciated. And that happened as well in Japanese football, and that’s why we created “Ten-sai”, which contains the word “10” (the number to usually identify a football genius, a pure offensive demiurge), but “tensai” is also the word for “genius” or “prodigy” in Japanese. And we picked some criteria to line up our candidates for this series.
No European football in their careers; they wore the “10” for at least five seasons, whether at one club or during their careers; and true leaders wherever they played, plus they’ve never been told in another JLR series. And that’s why we must start from one name, one player who probably doesn’t tell you that much if you’re new to Japanese football… but the influence of Masashi Motoyama over the J.League in the 2000s was stunning.
From the Sun with Love
Motoyama was born in 1979 in the deep South of Japan – precisely in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture. His family ran a fish shop, and the little Masashi had talent, but in a specific time: J.League didn’t exist at that time. Nonetheless, one of his coaches at the Futashima Elementary School told him he had the talent to do whatever he wanted. Motoyama featured for one of the best high schools in football: the Higashi Fukuoka High School.
Initially, he was fielded as a defensive midfielder, but then he was moved forward on the pitch and it worked: Higashi Fukuoka High School achieved the first-ever “triple crown”, winning the Inter-High School Championship, the All Japan Youth Championship and the High School national Championship. Motoyama was so influential on their fortunes that the high school from Fukuoka amassed 49 wins and two draws in the 51 matches Motoyama featured in.
And in 1998, the young ace met his destiny by joining Kashima Antlers. He wasn’t alone, since Mitsuo Ogasawara, Hitoshi Sogahata, Koji Nakata and others became squad members in the same year. While Antlers took it slowly with him, Motoyama was showing his value also with the national team: he was in the squad who came second in the 1999 FIFA U-20 World Championship, being selected for the best eleven alongside Shinji Ono.
It was just a question of time before the rest would have come. Motoyama gained more and more minutes in a winning side; he debuted with the national team in the senior squad, and he was called up for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. And while the 2000 and 2001 seasons saw him as a super-sub from the bench, in 2002 he finally got what he wanted: Bismarck left Antlers and Motoyama could finally wear the desired no. 10.
Deer Mentality
Everything started clicking together, because another very important thing happened: Zico took over the Japanese national team, and as a former Kashima Antlers legend, he couldn’t overlook the players from Ibaraki. So Motoyama finally gathered more and more caps with the national team, even being in the team who won the 2004 AFC Asian Cup. Unfortunately, Motoyama couldn’t have the same impact he had with Antlers in the national team, due also to the presence of Shunsuke Nakamura.
Never mind – Antlers brought him the joy he needed. At 28 years old, he finally won the J1 title with Antlers, the first of a threepeat between ’07 and ’09. He also featured in every single match of that season, and became one of the senators towards the end of the 2000s. In 2008, Motoyama even played through injuries – especially a hydronephrosis which limited his impact, ending up in surgery only in December of that year.
Oswaldo de Oliveira, the manager of that incredible run, often told the story of how much Motoyama impressed him when he took over the club: “My younger brother, who used to be a physical coach, told me that Antlers has an amazing number 10, the best player in Japan. After interacting with him and playing with him, I realized that he was right. He has technique, dribbling skills, and intelligence, and the question was how to utilize those.”
Despite these perks, though, Motoyama’s shape wasn’t the best, and his minutes started going down once we entered the 2010s. Antlers weren’t either in their best moment, entering a youth revolution and steadily siding the senators. At the end of the 2015 season, the goodbye was inevitable: Motoyama left after winning six J1 titles, three Emperor’s Cups, five J. League Cups, and one Japanese Super Cup.
The Legacy
Honestly, following his career after Kashima isn’t the point. Motoyama was already 37 and he chose to go back home, joining Giravanz Kitakyushu in a tough time. The club dropped to J3 in his first season, and in 2017, Motoyama suffered an ACL rupture, plus a meniscus tear. It was over – the former Antlers kept a senator role until 2019, when he was let go. Motoyama helped in his family shop in Kitakyushu, before a small Malaysian adventure for two years with Kelatan United FC.
The official retirement came only in 2023, at the age of 44, announced in front of the fans of Kashima Antlers. Naturally, the club arranged a “goodbye match” a few months later – “Antlers Legends” v. “MO10 Friends” –, which included many notable names: Zico, Masatada Ishii, Atsuto Uchida, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Shinji Ono, Shinzo Koroki, Junichi Inamoto, and many others. Despite he wasn’t the poster boy of Japanese football in the 2000s, almost every big name from that era was there.
And when it comes down on why he was a “Tensai”, there some instances we could quote. First of all, agility and dribble were part of his daily diet, giving football in Japan a particular rhythm, especially for a club whose brand has been “grit-and-grind” (although the Brazilian component was always there). So much that Kashima Antlers even defeated Manchester United in a friendly in 2005 with a brace by Motoyama.
And yet, it’s incredible how the no. 10 was down to earth. On the day he announced his official retirement, he said to his beloved crowd: “I wasn’t a great player, but I’m proud of how far I’ve come.” At almost 47 years old, he’s been now featuring in the Kashima Antlers technical staff, mostly a scout. In the end, if there’s someone capable of recognizing talent in Japan, that must be the no. 10 from Kitakyushu.
