Shinji Ono

Biography

September 27,1979 - ) is a Japan (Japan: A constitutional monarchy occupying the Japanese Archipelago; a world leader in electronics and automobile manufacture and ship building) ese football (football: Any of various games played with a ball (round or oval) in which two teams try to kick or carry or propel the ball into each other's goal) player, who plays as a midfielder (midfielder: in association football a midfielder is a player whose position of play is midway between...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) for the Japanese national team (Japanese national team: the japan national football team is one of the strongest football teams in asia, although...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) and Feyenoord (Feyenoord: feyenoord rotterdam are a dutch football club from the city of rotterdam....
[follow hyperlink for more...]) .

Ono is probably the biggest star in Asian football (football: Any of various games played with a ball (round or oval) in which two teams try to kick or carry or propel the ball into each other's goal) . He started like every Japanese boy at the college level, where he immediately stood out. So, as soon as he reached the legal playing age of 17 he was offered a contract by practically every Japanese pro club. Ono chose his childhood favorite, the Urawa Red Diamonds (Urawa Red Diamonds: the urawa red diamonds (japanese: ),...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) .

After his third season (2000-2001) Urawa knew they couldn't keep him. By this time Ono had caught the attention of all big clubs in Europe and seemed on his way to Borussia Dortmund (Borussia Dortmund: borussia dortmund (full name ballspiel-verein borussia 1909 e.v....
[follow hyperlink for more...]) , however Feyenoord (Feyenoord: feyenoord rotterdam are a dutch football club from the city of rotterdam....
[follow hyperlink for more...]) swept him away and left Borussia empty handed (ironically that same season Ono helped Feyenoord beat Borussia in the UEFA Cup (UEFA Cup: a second tournament took place between 1958 and 1960, all tournaments since have been held on a...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) Final). Ono didn't come alone to Holland (Holland: A constitutional monarchy in western Europe on the North Sea; achieved independence from Spain in 1579; half the country lies below sea level) , but his arrival marked the beginning of an journalist invasion, who followed every step Ono took, for a half year and had to write a page a day about him. Holland was stunned by all the attention the little guy got, but as soon as he had played his first match they understood Feyenoord had signed a new superstar.

He is the only player to have won both the Asian Youth Player Of The Year and Asian Player Of The Year, which he won after being an integral part in the Feyenoord team who won the UEFA Cup. And since then he has been known as one of the best playmakers in the modern game and is one of the favourite players of the fans of Feyenoord. But in the next season (2002-2003) he never reached his level because of injuries and the absence of a vacation for 3 years. So when the season ended the hopes of "het legioen" were high for the next season, but again Shinji didn't shine. but now 5 games in to season 2004-2005 Shinji is more important than ever in the new Feyenoord and is finally playing on his high level again.