Kobe Shinbun called me to tell me of Nakata’s retirement and asked for comment! We are going up in the world! Nakata.net announces Hide’s retirement from the game…. It is official retirement, not just from the national team, as expected, but football in general – a big loss to Japanese football (blame the Japanese press!? Blame the pressure on Japan’s most gifted player? Blame a secret that Hide is keeping to himself, for now?), but Nakata has long been fed up of the intrusions into his life, and the inane and objectionable journalism that passes for “coverage” in Japan, and is probably rich enough and successful enough to find more than enough other things to do with his life! Good luck to him!