“My feet, which have been my companions for 39 years since I first discovered football, are telling me to let them rest, so I have decided to stop playing professional football at the end of this season,” Ono said in a statement.

“There are still a few games left in the season, but I will continue to prepare well so that I can be involved in the games as much as possible. Thank you for your support until the end.”

Ono started his professional career with Urawa Red Diamonds in 1998 and was included in Takeshi Okada’s squad for the FIFA World Cup finals in France later that year as an 18-year-old, where he made an appearance from the bench in the 2-1 loss against Jamaica.

The gifted playmaker was a key member in the team that reached the final of the FIFA U20 World Cup in Nigeria in 1999 and he went on to make 56 appearances for Japan’s senior national side, including during the country’s successful 2000 AFC Asian Cup campaign.

Ono moved to Feyenoord in the Netherlands in 2001 and won the UEFA Cup in 2002, when he was also a member of Philippe Troussier’s Japan squad as the country co-hosted the FIFA World Cup. His form saw him crowned the AFC Player of the Year.

Since then Ono, who was also part of Japan’s 2006 FIFA World Cup squad, has played in Germany and Australia either side of a stint with Shimizu S-Pulse before starting a five-year spell with Consadole Sapporo in 2014. He returned in 2021 after a spell with FC Ryukyu.

Consadole are currently 12th in the J1 League standings and will finish their season against FC Tokyo on November 25.