If you're talking about video game adaptations of popular sporting events, and mention the 1998 World Cup, most people in the West will remember two releases, both published by Electronic Arts: France 98 and the superior FIFA 98: Road To The World Cup.
They weren't the only officially-licensed games to be released at the time, however. Just days before the actual tournament was due to kick off on June 10, 1998, Konami rushed World Soccer Jikkyō Winning Eleven 3: World Cup France '98 (for the PlayStation) and Jikkyō World Soccer: World Cup France '98 (for the Nintendo 64) onto shelves in Japan, both of which, in their home market only, also carried the official France 98 license.
Being an officially-licensed product, and catering specifically to the Japanese market, this game had a unique feature: while Konami's games were long famous for having to use fake player names to get around the lack of a FIFPro license, in this case Japan's Blue Samurai--making the finals for the first time in the nation's history--were accurately depicted, from their playing kits down to each individual's name and number.
Among the team's substitutes for the N64 game (though weirdly not for the PS1 edition), and in the actual Japanese side's squad for the tournament as well, was a young 18-year-old player called Shinji Ono. While not a key player at the time--he only made one appearance at France 98, coming on as a substitute in a game against Jamaica--Ono nevertheless played in the tournament and appeared in the video game.
All of which I'm bringing up because, at the age of 44, in The Year Of Our Lord 2023, Shinji Ono has just retired. He wasn't jogging around in lower leagues, either; Ono was still playing in the J1 League (Japan's top flight) for Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo. He played his last game on December 3 and received a standing ovation from fans as he left the field for the last time on the weekend:
When Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon--who as backup keeper at the time hadn't actually played in 1998, but had still made video game squads--retired in August 2023, that left Ono as the last man standing from a France 98 video game. To put that length of time in perspective, it means Ono appeared in a Nintendo 64 sports game in June 1998, then just kept on playing, through moves across continents (he's a cult figure here in Australia for his time at Western Sydney) and two more World Cups (2002 and 2006), all the way through to featuring in EA Sports FC 24, a game released in September 2023 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
I'm almost exactly the same age as this guy! I was 18 during the 1998 World Cup, and was lucky enough to be in England and France at the time, soaking everything up as a wide-eyed teenager. The sheer gulf of time between then and now, where I'm now a guy with kids and a mortgage and a lifetime of memories across successive generations of video game consoles, is immense. And this guy played right through it! The whole damn time!
So congratulations, Shinji Ono. You had one hell of a career. It's wild that we're only saying goodbye to the last player from Jikkyō World Soccer: World Cup France '98 in December 2023, but considering Japanese players are increasingly famous for this kind of longevity--see King Kazu--maybe we shouldn't have been too surprised.
Notes: Firstly, while Teruyoshi Ito--who made his debut for Japan in 1997, and made Japan's squad in 1998--is also still active, he never played at France 98, and wasn't featured in Jikkyō World Soccer: World Cup France '98 either. And secondly, Ono doesn't appear to have made the cut for either of EA's 1998 games, but I couldn't find rosters for France 98, so if anyone is able to check that please let me know!
