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Editor
Holder of a Master's degree in international law, I realized at the end of my university career that it was important to evolve in a field that you appreciate. Overnight, I decided to put an end to my parents' dream, who saw in me a future lawyer, to make a living from my passion: sport. Since then, I have covered transfer windows and sports news, trying to keep readers informed as best as possible.
Koji Nakata only stayed one year in Marseille (2005-2006), but the midfielder made his mark by missing his pass during a match against ASSE. While OM meets the Greens this Sunday, L'Equipe went to meet the current sporting director of the Antlers, who agreed to return to this gesture mocked by the supporters.
The name of Koji Nakata takes us directly back to an icy match between OM and the AXIS contested on March 6, 2005, on snow which had veiled the Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium. Few remember the score of this meeting (victory for the Greens 2-0). On the other hand, many of them have remembered the failure of the Japanese international who arrived in Marseille a few weeks earlier. Nakata had lost sight of the ball and mimed a pass into space. A moment which fueled the sporting bloopers and which the former midfielder returned to.
Nakata returns to his failure
« Yes, I was tense for this first match, there was competition, my transfer had surprised the local press, I wasn't sure of myself. On the other hand, I had already experienced snow, for the final of the Japanese High School Championship (in January 1998, in a packed Tokyo Olympic Stadium) with my Teikyo school against Fukuoka. In Saint-Étienne, I had the right crampons, it wasn't a problem » confided Nakata.
“I missed my move”
This action therefore results from a simple lack of concentration. “I make a good first check with a retro effect (from the flat of my foot) to stop the ball coming at me. In Kashima it was the Brazilian school. Controlling your head up, seeing one step ahead, that was the basis of our football. So I'm already trying to project myself into the next move and I'm sure that the ball is warm under my center of gravity. I never told myself that I had missed my move » declared the sports director of Antlers in the columns of The Team.
