TOKYO: Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, a former captain of the Japanese men’s national soccer team, became the 15th president of the Japan Football Association on Saturday.

Miyamoto, 47, is the youngest JFA president since the end of World War II, and the first JFA head to have played in the World Cup.

He has experience coaching a team in the top division of Japan’s professional soccer league. At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, he worked as a member of FIFA, the sport’s international governing body. He previously served as JFA general secretary.

“I want to make the soccer world better by involving many people, while being strongly committed to the soccer world,” Miyamoto told a press conference in Tokyo on the day.

Miyamoto was the only candidate in the JFA leadership election and was approved as the next JFA head in December.

His predecessor, Kozo Tashima, who served four terms for a total of eight years, will become honorary chairman of the association.

JIJI Press