{"id":64651,"date":"2024-02-26T12:25:18","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T12:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/japans-premier-league-winner-okazaki-to-retire-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2024-02-26T12:25:18","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T12:25:18","slug":"japans-premier-league-winner-okazaki-to-retire-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/japans-premier-league-winner-okazaki-to-retire-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan’s Premier League winner Okazaki to retire | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nTOKYO:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Former Japan<\/a> international Shinji Okazaki, who won the Premier League with Leicester City in 2016, announced Monday that he will retire at the end of the season.<\/p>\n

The hard-working forward played a key role as the Foxes upset the odds to win their first league title under Claudio Ranieri, making 36 Premier League appearances and scoring five goals in the 2015-16 season.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old also finished as Japan’s all-time third-highest scorer with 50 goals in 119 appearances.<\/p>\n

“I have decided to retire at the end of the season,” Okazaki posted on Instagram.<\/p>\n

“I have given everything as a football player but I have realised that my body is worn out and I am reaching my physical limit.”<\/p>\n

Okazaki began his career with J-League club Shimizu S-Pulse and played in Germany with Stuttgart and Mainz before joining Leicester in 2015.<\/p>\n

He scored a spectacular overhead goal against Newcastle in their title-winning campaign to put Ranieri’s side five points clear at the top of the table with eight games remaining.<\/p>\n

Ranieri said the following season that Okazaki was “important for the team because he presses a lot”.<\/p>\n

“He is our ‘dilly-ding, dilly-dong’,” said the Italian. “He wakes up our players — he has the bell.”<\/p>\n

Okazaki played at three World Cups and was part of the Japan team that won the Asian Cup in 2011.<\/p>\n

He is currently at Belgian side Sint-Truiden, after playing for several Spanish clubs following his Leicester exit in 2019.<\/p>\n

He has struggled with injury this season and has not played since December.<\/p>\n

“I will talk about my retirement again at the end of the season,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Until then I will try to get back to fitness and make a contribution to the team.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TOKYO: Former Japan international Shinji Okazaki, who won the Premier League with Leicester City in 2016, announced Monday that he will retire at the end of the season. The hard-working forward played a key role as the Foxes upset the odds to win their first league title under Claudio Ranieri, making 36 Premier League appearances […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-02-26-at-3-39-19-PM1708944024-0\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-02-26-at-3-39-19-PM1708944024-0.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t