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Journalist
Graduated from Journalism School in Paris. Specializing in football, and more particularly on the transfer window. Fan of PSG and Stade Français.
Recruited straight from Japan by OM in January 2005, Koji Nakata especially made an impression for his famous, completely failed gesture against ASSE during his very first match with the Marseille club. He returns to the delicate context of the time and notably evokes a lot of tension linked to his signing with OM.
Long before the iconic Hiroki Sakai who left his mark during his time at the Vélodrome, theABOUT had signed another Japanese player: Who Nakata. The latter above all left a hilarious memory for the supporters, since for his very first match under the Marseille colors in January 2005 on the lawn of theASSEhe carried out a completely failed check which still continues to fuel bloopers today. And Nakata remembers this very special memory with OM in the columns of THE TEAM.
“I was tense…”
« I was starting to fit in well. Very humbly, I think that in training I demonstrated technical qualities, with both feet, superior to the average of the defenders in our group. I was tense for this first match, there was competition, my transfer had surprised the local press, I was not sure of myself », confides the former Japanese international, who finally left theABOUT barely a year later in total anonymity.
Nakata's regrets
« It was a complicated season. But, at the Vélodrome, I had some good matches, technically I was never on the street. Apart from this gesture (…) I would have been keen to bring more to OM », continues Nakatawho therefore regrets the turn of his adventure with theABOUT.
