Celtic icon Shunsuke Nakamura has been appointed as part of the backroom staff of Japan ahead of this summer’s World Cup.
The free-kick expert was back in Glasgow to take in the Samurai Blue’s friendly win at Barclays Hampden late last month as part of a Japanese TV station’s coverage.
And now the former midfielder will be joining up with the coaching setup as a technical coach in the Americas from June.
“I am pleased to announce that I will be joining the staff as a coach for the Japanese national team” Nakamura said in a statement.
“I carefully considered the impact of my joining at such a crucial time, just before the World Cup finals, but after receiving passionate and encouraging words from Coach [Hajime] Moriyasu, I decided to accept the position.
“I will strive to share the same aspirations as the Japanese national team players competing on the world stage and contribute to achieving the goals the team has set.”
Nakamura represented his country 98 times, scoring 24 times.
He was the first Japanese player to play for Celtic, a market that has benefitted the Glasgow giants massively in recent years, with World Cup hopefuls Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate on the books currently.
Japan won two friendlies in March 1-0 away to both Scotland and England, and will play one more friendly against Iceland before their World Cup group stage fixtures in Group F against the Netherlands, Tunisia and Sweden.
