Yuto Nagatomo is a Japanese footballer who plays as a defender for Serie A club Internazionale. Yuto Nagatomo was born in Saijō, Ehime Perfecture on 12 September 1986. His grandfather, Yoshida Tatsuo and Tatsuo’s brother Minoru were famed professional bicycle racers who competed in Keirin. Nagatomo started playing football in kindergarten, and was a good player during his school days, but until he became 20, he had been unknown in the Japanese soccer community. When he was 12, he tried to join the Ehime F.C. junior youth team but failed and continued to play in his own junior high school team. He was able to join a strong high school team of Higashi Fukuoka High School which played at the All Japan High School Soccer Tournament. But he still failed to obtain a school recommendation as a student with excellent sports (in this case soccer) achievement from his high school to enter a university. Therefore, he entered Meiji University as an ordinary student, which Nagatomo succeeded by his good academic results in his high school. After entering the university and joining its soccer team, he suffered from hernia and could only see his team play the matches from the stand. Then in 2006, he was moved to full-back and started to distinguish himself. He was quickly chosen for the All Japan University XI and represented Japan at the 2007 Universiade held in Bangkok. In 2007, Nagatomo was chosen as one of the Designated Players for Development by J. League and JFA. With this status, he was able to register as a J. League club player while he was still eligible to play for his university. He played one J. League Cup game for F.C. Tokyo that season. He also played for Japan’s U-22 team in the Olympic qualfiers. Nagatomo officially signed with F.C. Tokyo in 2008, while at Meiji. Nagatomo made 84 appearances in his four years at FC Tokyo. In July 2010, Nagatomo was signed on loan by the Italian Serie A side A.C. Cesena, where he played the first half of the season as Cesena’s starting left back. Before moving to Italy, Nagatomo gave a speech to 25,000 supporters just after the match involving F.C. Tokyo and Vissel Kobe on 17 July 2010. After being signed on a permanent deal, Nagatomo was then sold onto Internazionale. Due to his impressive performances for both Cesena and Japan in the 2011 Asian Cup, he was fully signed by Internazionale in January 2011. But before making any league appearances was sent straight out on loan to Inter in exchange for Davide Santon also on loan, becoming the first Asian player in Inter’s history. Nagatomo made his debut for Inter wearing the number 55 shirt on 6 February 2011, replacing Wesley Sneijder in the Serie A match against AS Roma, which Inter won 5-3. In the following game, Nagatomo came on as a late substitute against Juventus. Nagatomo then started in both of the following games against Fiorentina and Cagliari. Nagatomo has shown his versatility by playing right back against Sampdoria on 27 February 2011, and finishing the whole 90 minutes. On 6 March 2011, Nagatomo scored his first goal for Inter in the 5-2 trashing against Genoa from a Kharja assist with a swivel and a finish into the roof of the net. On 15 March, to show solidarity with his home country in light of the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami which took place the previous week he paraded the Japanese flag (with the writing “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, a chant of his former team in Tokyo) around the pitch during a Champions League match against Bayern Munich. Inter have drawn German club side Schalke 04 in the quarter-finals of 2010-11 UEFA Champions League. Nagatomo, along with international teammate Atsuto Uchida who plays for Schalke both became the second and third Japanese footballer to play in the quarter-finals of UEFA Champions league (Keisuke Honda was the first playing for CSKA Moscow during 2009-2010 season). After the Serie A season was over, Inter had an agreement with Cesena for making a permanent move for Yuto in a cash plus player exchange deal. Nagatomo was valued €10.95 million, however part of the fee was paid via half of the registration rights of Luca Garritano (€700,000) and Luca Caldirola. Nagatomo earned his first international cap on 24 May 2008 in a friendly against Ivory Coast. His first international goal was scored in a friendly against Syria held on 13 November 2008. Nagatomo was also a member of the Japan U-21 team for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
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