Hidetoshi Nakata, OSSI (中田 英寿, Nakata Hidetoshi, born 22 January 1977) is a Japanese former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Considered one of the best talents to come from an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) country in the early late 1990s and early 2000s,[3] Nakata became the first ever AFC player to be nominated for the Ballon d'Or; he also hold the record for most goals scored by an AFC player in the Serie A. He is widely considered to be one of the best Asian players of all time.
