Sydney fans who paid child prices to see him pull on the sky blue shirt now have families of their own and you have to be a lot older than that to remember a time when Kazu was not banging them in.

By the time I moved to Asia in the last century, he was already a superstar and was coming to the end of an international career during which fans of the Samurai Blue had seen his famous ‘Kazu Dance’ goal celebration over 50 times.

He played in the J.League at the same time as Zico and Gary Lineker. Indeed, when the former England star learned that Miura was still playing, his reaction on social media -”is he? Wow!” - said it all. That was six years ago.

“@sportingintel: Kazu Miura still playing in Japanese 2nd division, I think, age 46. Played against him for Nagoya v Verdy, no?” <Is he? Wow — Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) November 27, 2013

So when King Kazu signed for Sydney in 2005 on loan, he was not some fresh-faced teenager but a veteran approaching his 40th birthday accompanied down under by a dozen Japanese journalists.

In some ways it is a source of regret that the loose-hipped forward is known around the world for his longevity as his career has been about quality as much as quantity.

Hailing from Shizuoka, a one-time hotbed of Japanese talent partly thanks to the Brazilian influence there, Kazu did something almost unheard of.

At the age of 15 - way back in the early 80s- he dropped out of school on the advice of his uncle and went to play football in Brazil.

It must have been a major culture shock and was certainly a struggle at first. Sick for home and sick of being teased by team-mates, the young forward decided to call it quits and head home.

The story goes that on his last evening in Brazil, he saw a street game in Rio that involved a player with just one leg. In true Hollywood fashion, the sight inspired Miura and he stayed in South America, joined a futsal team to learn some of that samba style and soon started to show what he was capable of.

At the time Japanese football had no reputation at all internationally. Yet Miura went on to sign a professional contract at the age of 18 with Santos, Pele’s old club. This was, at a time when the standard of South American club football was a good deal higher than it is now.

If that was the only thing he ever did, it would be quite an achievement but he inspired others who went on to make the trip of their own volition or on the instruction of some organisation.

Indeed a whole generation of Chinese prospects went to Brazil in the early 90s including players such as Li Tie, Li Weifeng and Li Jinyu who become experienced internationals.

Park Chu-young - later of Arsenal - made the journey early this century returning to South Korea to become a huge sensation and later, for a while, one of Asia’s top strikers.

It was only when Asian players started to move straight to Europe early in the 21st century that this practice died out.

Just to make that move to Brazil showed Miura had something different as did the fact that he made a success of it.

He was brought back home ahead of the launch of the J.League in 1993 and rivalled the big-name imports for charisma, flamboyance and star power.

Initially, the Japanese media was suspicious of a player that liked doing things a little differently on the pitch but lapped up his readiness to say what Japanese football needed to move forward.

Fans of Verdy Kawasaki didn’t care. The forward led the club to the inaugural J.League title in 1993, earning himself the Player of the Year award.

By this time, he was a fully-fledged Japanese international of course, and was as heartbroken as everyone else at missing out on the 1994 World Cup with the last kick of qualification. After helping the Samurai Blue to a first World Cup four years later, he was controversially left out of the squad.

That was a major blow, though he at least had two spells in Europe with Genoa, famously scoring against city rivals Sampdoria, and Red Star Belgrade.

He doesn’t play much these days with just two league appearances this season - he is 52 after all.

Kazu still leads the way when it comes to off the field fitness regimes however and his discipline is almost as well-known as his career.

When the day to retire does come - and it is coming soon - Australian fans should be happy they saw a genuine Asian legend, and much more besides, on and off the pitch.