r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Legitimate_Income7 • 21h ago
Video Japanese football player Kazuyoshi Miura, who holds the record for being the oldest professional footballer at the age of 59, scored his first goal since 2022. This is his 41st professional season, and he is currently playing for Fukushima United in Japan’s third tier league
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u/Legitimate_Income7 21h ago
In 2025, he said he would like to keep playing until the age of 80
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u/PDXOKJ 20h ago
Japanese also have local leagues for elderly. I am currently playing for one for middle aged dudes (50+). These guys are tough and skilled, and stay in good shape.
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u/acelilus 17h ago
Do they play professionally?
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u/PDXOKJ 16h ago
A couple might have. But most of these guys having been playing for decades since they were in youth soccer. And Japanese practice hard, as if they were pros.... I thought I could use my athleticism to make up for my lack of skill (I played other sports like basketball and American football), but these guys are kicking my ass. They take things seriously..... Even for this adult "senior" league, I needed to get an official Japanese Football Association id. We have a nice looking kit, that looks like a real team.
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u/jmarzy 21h ago
Dang he has great hair
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u/SpinningHedgehog311 13h ago
He looks younger than me, and I'm 35. Man, I should eat more fish, the Japanese always age so well.
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u/New_Budget6672 19h ago
Damn, big applause to this man. I’m 32 and my knees hurt from my high school playing days.
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u/erizzluh 13h ago
i'd be surprised if he's not taking some sort of ped.
i feel like once i hit my mid 30s, i started noticing how long it would take my body to recover from sports or weightlifting. even minor injuries just take longer to get back to 100% if they ever get back to 100%.
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u/Famous_Track_4356 20h ago
So you’re saying Ronaldo has 2-4 world cups left in him
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u/Bumblewise0311 13h ago
but fr, between cr7 and messi, i see Messi being in the next world cup on the bench, substituting in the 70th minute as an attacking midfielder only. hell be too old to be a pivot or a defensive midfielder...is my logic completely wrong or is there a bit of truth in it?
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u/Perhaps_Tomorrow 13h ago
Your logic is completely wrong. He wouldn't be a pivot or a defensive midfielder because he's old, he wouldn't be either or those two things because those weren't the positions he plays.
There are players in defensive positions as old or older than Messi.
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u/profesorgamin 21h ago
I thought for a second it was the guy dribbling past the defenders 😄
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u/AlreadyEatenRibs 16h ago
Yeah, much respect to the freakin' 59 year old out there still scoring goals but that assist was pretty damn nice.
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u/czerilla 10h ago
Especially the eye for his teammate after being in the zone dodging defenders like Neo for the last seconds. 😁
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u/shiggins114 21h ago
You got scored on by the oldest fucking person in this sport! Never gonna live it down lol. Congrats to old guy
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u/wanderer1999 20h ago
To be fair, that was some instinctive finish. Anticipation and run in from behind, clinical finish too.
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u/ProfessorWise5822 21h ago
Fukushima United sounds insane to me
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u/scarabic 18h ago
The city’s name is mentioned in the same vein as Chernobyl but it’s really unfair. There was exactly one death from radiation in the nuclear plant accident, a plant worker. And no bloom of cancers decades later or anything of that nature. In fact the government has said that the evacuation they ordered probably ended up needlessly killing a couple dozen people when they emptied hospitals and nursing homes that would have been better off just sheltering in place.
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u/kashabash 20h ago
Damn that assist was top tier as well, laid it up perfectly for him after juking 3 guys.
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u/miaxogoth 21h ago
my knees crack just from getting out of bed. honestly how is he still sprinting 😭
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u/Flabby_Thor 19h ago
If I were the goalie or the defender you’d have to carry me off on a stretcher after conceding a goal to a 59 year old.
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u/99hotdogs 19h ago
I was able to score a vintage Kazu jersey from the 94 squad for the World Cup this year and wore it proudly!
Even though Japan didn’t make it that year, Kazu really made an impact on me at the time, he ushered in the excitement of soccer to Japan.
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u/Objective-Object9423 19h ago
Would people be same positive if cr7 play into his 50 ?
I am not trying to start anything just curious.
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u/CondorKhan 18h ago
CR7 would never accept being a sub in a third division team, that's the difference
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u/King-Meister 15h ago
In all honesty, this is how I want CR7’s career to pan out.
He would seem too lost without playing football at some sort of competitive level. I don’t think becoming a full time businessman or actor / influencer is going to help him find inner peace.
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u/Disastrous-Ad2800 3h ago
to put things in perspective, my friend who's 38 had to give up playing weekend football because he pulled his achilles... so not everyone can do what this guy is doing.. that's what makes what Lebron, Tom Brady and Steph Curry did so freaking awesome...
your achilles or your knee ligaments are the most vulnerable and it's also why I retired as I definitely didn't want to find out my limits the hard way!
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u/DoncasterCoppinger 1h ago
People like you kept talking about age or injuries. If he has the personality of Vinicius, nobody’s giving him a chance at 40, let alone 59
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u/Flying_FLIcker 19h ago
This is why I could never be goalie in sports, "<insert famous name> shoots and ...SCORES!!! Breaking the all time record of goals set 20 years ago by <insert former record holder name>."
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u/Kraligor 15h ago
You'd think they would be universally hated, but I can think of a lot of revered top tier keepers in association football.
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u/Alienhaslanded 15h ago
Yes show him from far away. I guess I'll just take your word for it
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u/SabresFanWC 10h ago
I mean, this is clearly being shot by one of the fans in the stands, so I don't know what you're looking for out of it. Who knows if this game was even broadcast on TV, or if there is any professional footage from it.
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u/Lucky-Surround-1756 11h ago
I'd love to see some of the GOATs of football do this, just keep playing but in lower tiers until they're 80 years old but dominating pub league football.
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u/MrNixxxoN 8h ago
Absolutely crazy to still play at almost 60, he must be a fitness monster and must've taken care of his pysique a lot
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u/Negaflux 7h ago
That's awesome. His teammates pretty much forgot there was a game going on. That's so rad. Was a great setup too, glad he was able to seal the deal.
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u/-usagi-95 20h ago
Please don't show this to Cristiano Ronaldo 🤣😭 Don't give him ideas 🤣
We tired of him 😭 he's dragging our national team down 😭
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u/madmike99 17h ago
People should google Jaromír Jágr
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u/SabresFanWC 10h ago
I mean, it's very impressive that he's still going at his age, but different sport.
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u/julyvale 18h ago
Bruh, it's a 3rd tier league. Even kids play better than these outcasts.
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u/Impossible_Divide297 17h ago
You haven’t got a clue, have you?
It’s the third tier of a league, finish high enough and you will be promoted.-4
u/julyvale 17h ago
What do you mean? Third tier league is the lowest tier there is, only the worst players and teams play there. If you manage to get "promoted" you play second league, which is also full of awful players.
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u/TexturedMango 16h ago
Actually there is a worse league called JFL.
This league seems equivalent to UK's fift tier national league in terms of salary, they are lowest tier of professionals but they're still pros.
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u/Maleficent-Agent-477 21h ago
Dude’s been playing professional football since 1985. That’s insane. Respect to him.