FC Gifu today announced a new signing, that of Yuki Nakamura – a forward with quite the back story.
If the name seems familiar (as it did to me, although at first I thought it was the Kyoto midfielder Yuya Nakamura – Kanji fail!) then don’t be surprised. Nakamura hit the headlines earlier this year when he walked out on Slovakian side MSK Rimavska Sobata amid claims that he was being racially abused by supporters.
Since leaving the Shimizu S-Pulse youth set up, possibly where Gyotoku first noticed him, he has bounced around several eastern European clubs. First he joined Romanian side CFR Craiova before moving to Czech side Viktoria Zizkov. From Zizkov, he was loaned out to FK Bodva Moldava and then on to MSK.
In a January post on his blog, he declared that would leave MSK, complained that he couldn’t understand why he was being abused & why his team-mates were so passive about it. The announcement made headlines in Japan as it came just after the time when Japan international goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima was taunted by Belgian fans with chants of “Fukushima” during games. (For more on this topic, you can read Sean Carroll’s excellent piece here)
I can say with cast-iron certainty that Nakamura will be welcomed with open arms. A forward is always welcome, especially now. I don’t really know anything about how he plays, but he immediately comes into consideration for Sunday’s crunch game in Kumamoto providing he receives his clearance in time. I’ve been informed by members of FC Gifu’s twitter community that he has played in a couple of trial games and that he has looked strong and that he could hold the ball up, something the current team is clearly lacking.
Welcome aboard Yuki!!
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