Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Zurich: Veteran football journalist Hiroshi Kagawa from Japan was bestowed the FIFA Presidential Award during the FIFA Ballon d’Or gala event in the Swiss capital on Monday.
The 90-year old, who received the award from FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, was the oldest media representative on duty at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the tenth time he has attended the global footballing extravaganza.
The journalist from Kobe was honoured for his tireless work for football in Japan, which has significantly contributed to the growth in popularity of the game in his homeland thanks to his numerous articles and incredible passion for the game.
“I had travelled so far,” Kagawa told fifa.com when he was covering the 2014 World Cup. “It was the Olympiastadion in Munich, the 1974 World Cup final. It’s so vivid in my mind. Johan Cruyff in orange and Franz Beckenbauer in white. I felt so grateful.”
The 1974 tournament was Kagawa’s first World Cup assignment as a journalist and nine more would follow as he traversed the world from his home in Kobe, Japan. He missed out on South Africa 2010 due to poor health, but was back for his tenth in Brazil.
“Football was something positive in the world and it was something I could do to help Japan,” Kagawa said about his first few steps into the world of football journalism. “I wanted Japan to join the world’s top teams and be a part of the larger world of football.”
Photo: AFP