December 2nd, 2022 – it’s a day of destiny for Japan. “A heart that never gives up. The power of believing let you reach your dreams”. As a picture matching the post, there’s the incredible assist by Kaoru Mitoma which led to the winning goal of Ao Tanaka against Spain. It’s a memorable victory, which led Japan to win the group. But in the end, that post, and that caption, probably tell you a lot about the protagonist of our story.
And in the last days, there’s been another piece of media which gave us a bigger picture. DAZN produced two docs over two Japanese players poised to be at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. One is about Takumi Minamino, called “Almost There”, because in the end the Monaco player couldn’t make the cut due to an injury (although, remarkably, Minamino travelled with the team as a non-playing member to support the others).
But the other doc produced by DAZN was probably the most important one. It revolves around a mythological figure within Japanese football, who spent more than a decade in Europe, and then decided to come back in the same squad where his European journey started from, FC Tokyo. At the time, it seemed a romantic move more than anything, but then he was included in the 2022 FIFA World Cup squad, and he made the cut as well for 2026.
This happened despite he returned on the pitch after a harmstring injury, just one week before Moriyasu announced his choices. He’s been clearly the spiritual leader of the team, even wearing a Japan flag-themed headband before the squad got into an ANA flight to Mexico. Once on the ground, he got stopped by Mexican media and he got to talk in Spanish with them. There’s no doubt that Yuto Nagatomo is one-of-a-kind.
Homecoming King
We don’t wanna go through his entire career, because that goes beyond the point. But just to recap quickly: Nagatomo joined FC Tokyo in 2008, staying there 2.5 seasons and then moving to Italy. Six months at Cesena, then a great seven-years stint at Inter Milan – where he still remembered by his former teammates. Nagatomo then joined Galatasaray, first on loan and then permanently, before moving to Olympique Marseille for one year.
Nonetheless, we want to start directly from the Summer of 2021. Nagatomo was a free agent back then, having been released by Marseille, and he decided to come back to Japan. FC Tokyo clearly were very happy about it, and he even took a significance on the number’s choice: he picked no. 50, as the mix of “5” – his favourite number – and the “0”, to represent a return to the roots. We were in COVID times, so it was a very good story to sell for the club.
Furthermore, Nagatomo found back his mojo, and he was called up for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He barely played, but he became a spiritual leader for a young group, which didn’t have anymore most of the players from the 2010s. His “Bravo” skit with Tomoaki Makino on TV made the rounds, and he became the first Japanese player to have played in four different editions of the FIFA World Cup (goalkeepers Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi and Seigo Narazaki featured in four tournaments as well, but they didn’t play each tournament).
Nagatomo raised his tally of FIFA World Cup games to 15, a tough record to overcome for any Japanese player. Before the trip to Qatar in 2022, he said: “I’m getting to the age where I might retire soon, but the fact is that I can’t quit being a football player. It’s too much fun”. In 3.5 years, he played just twice with the Samurai Blue – once again China in the 2025 EAFF E-1 Asian Championship, and the other in a friendly against the USA a few months later. But Hajime Moriyasu had to bring him.
The case for calling him up
Many asked: “Why is Moriyasu bringing Nagatomo to the 2026 FIFA World Cup?”. He’s almost 40, he doesn’t have the same explosive pace that made him a valuable left-back in his career, and in this 3-4-2-1 system it’s even hard to put him on the pitch, because wing-backs have now some offensive responsibilities too. Strangely, though, I wanna stick my neck here and defend the choice made by the head coach.
Yes, Nagatomo is 39, but he’s a healthy 39 years old. FC Tokyo can clearly move on from him, but Nagatomo played 30 league matches in 2022, 29 in 2023, 29 in 2024, 27 in 2025, and he featured in eight games in the “100-Year Vision League” tournament. He’s not Kazu Miura; he’s not there mostly for the cameras. He’s there because he can still give a contribution to a J.League level; which doesn’t make him a starter for the national team, but he’s not on a stretcher.
Furthermore, you gotta consider something else: this Japan national team who will head to the 2026 FIFA World Cup is pretty young. Not just in age, but in caps – only four players have more than 50, and Nagatomo is the only one with more than 100. Even captain Wataru Endo, who recovered in time and got called up, has 73. And there’s one thing that’s sure – the average talent in the Japanese national team grew a lot, but the charisma has decreased.
For the 2018 FIFA World Cup, you had captain Makoto Hasebe, Keisuke Honda, Shinji Okazaki, and even fringe players, but with great leadership like Tomoaki Makino. Besides captain Endo and maybe Tomiyasu, it’s hard to say which leaders this national team has. There are technical leaders – Kubo, Kamada, Mitoma was one of them – but personality-wise, no. And that’s why you need someone like Nagatomo in the locker room, especially with the chance of choosing a 26-man team instead of 23 players, like it used to be.
Legacy is now
I think I’m pretty straightforward if I say: it doesn’t matter whether Nagatomo actually plays even one minute in the upcoming FIFA World Cup or not. He’s there to rally the troops, guide them with his experience, nurtured in a decade of European football. And you can clearly see he feels the responsibility of this guiding role – just take a look at the FC Tokyo video published after he was called up.
Regarding this call-up, we don’t even need the words from Nagatomo, but rather from another Japanese football pillar like Keisuke Honda: “There aren’t many players in the world who have participated five times, so I have a lot of respect for him. As for his role, it might be that his role off the pitch is even more important than his role on the pitch. But he probably doesn’t want to admit that, I think Yuto’s role will be to firmly connect the parts that Moriyasu can’t see.”
All his fellow national teammates from the same generation – Inui, Okazaki, Honda, Kagawa, Hasebe – are either retired or not relevant anymore for the national team. Instead, Nagatomo has officially become the only Japanese AND Asian player to feature at five FIFA World Cup editions. And there’s a reason why, like Moriyasu underlined when he called him up again in 2023: “He always reflects on things no matter what, and he always behaves positively. The current players do that too, but he is on a whole other level“.
And what’s most interesting is not even the present or the immediate future; it’s the long term one. I can see Nagatomo playing the 2026-27 season and then retiring. But after that, I really hope he’ll embark in a directorial career within the JFA, because just like Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, he could be one day a perfect ambassador or even JFA president for a federation which is looking to do the next step. Meanwhile, Nagatomo already reached his fifth dimension into the global football stage.
