Mainichi: Nakamura urges 'pampered' Japanese players to go abroad
Shunsuke Nakamura reckons Japanese players are too spoilt at home and says more of his countrymen need to find the courage to pursue a career abroad for the sake of the development of the national team. "Players really need to just get out of Japan and go and play overseas. They are too pampered in the environment they are in here," Nakamura told Kyodo News in a recent interview. "If you are playing regularly for one or two years here then you are looking at a five-year stretch in the first team but overseas there are new players coming in all the time...It is incredibly tough to keep your position"..."Naka"...says the fear of being stuck on the bench and branded a failure back in Japan should not discourage players from trying their luck abroad..."People read the papers and see that a player is on the bench or has not made the bench or whatever and think 'oh he's a failure' but that is something that can't be helped. Endurance was the key for me...It would be great for the national team if there were 20 players overseas and 13 of them were getting called up for international duty"...more...