Tokyo - Former Japanese international Kazuyoshi Miura turns 40 later this month - but Japan's soccer boss wants another decade out of the ageing striker.
Japan Football Association (JFA) chief Saburo Kawabuchi is calling for Miura to emulate former England enigma Stanley Matthews who played top flight football until he was 50.
"I'd really like Kazu to pass Matthews," Kawabuchi said, adding that he wants to see him back in the Japan team.
"I'd like him to aim for that," he told Japanese media this week. "He's still got plenty to offer."
England's Matthews retired in 1965 as the oldest player ever to play in England's first division. He played for England for the last time aged 42 and also won the first European Footballer of the Year award in 1956.
Miura's career has been in decline since the mid-1990s when he moved to Italy's Genoa in a blaze of publicity, only to break his nose on his debut and depart after just a year.
The striker, who scored 56 goals in 91 appearances for Japan, currently plays for Japanese second division club Yokohama FC after a brief spell with Australia's Sydney FC.