Early life Ozu was born in
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil and began playing beach soccer aged six on the beaches of
Copacabana, Aged 10, Ozu's beach soccer school accepted an invite to play an
exhibition match before a Brazil match at Copacabana arena which was watched by 5,000 people. and was scouted on numerous occasions but living minutes from the beach and watching beach soccer regularly on TV was the inspiration for Ozu to pursue becoming a beach soccer professional, aged 16.
Japanese citizenship Ozu has stated that he never had the ambition to play for the
Brazil national team. Instead, his dream was to live abroad, learn about a new culture and compete as a beach soccer player there. In 2006, he moved to
Germany and briefly played there. and later in the year led his new country as captain to the quarter-finals of the
2013 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, his first World Cup, in which he won the Silver Ball (second best player) award. The inaugural
Beach Soccer Stars awards in 2014 saw Ozu named as part of the best team of the year, an accomplishment he has achieved again every since bar one as of 2022, the most appearances of any player, cementing his position as one of the world's best. In 2015, Ozu was once again named best player at the
AFC Championship and was also joint top scorer. 2016 saw Ozu branch further into playing for European clubs; he became the second Japanese to play in the Italian National League, for Viareggio, winning Europe's top club prize, the
Euro Winners Cup, with the
Tuscan side that season. who he would go on to win multiple
JFA League titles with. The AFC described Ozu's performance as "outstanding" as he again won the best player and top scorer awards of the AFC Championship, this time the
2019 edition, which Japan won for the first time under his captaincy. 2019 continued to mark major international landmarks for Ozu as he reached a century of goals scored in a 7–2 win over
Uruguay at the
World Beach Games and also earned his 100th cap at the
Intercontinental Cup a month later. In July 2020, Ozu was named as the new head coach of the Japan national team, making him a
player-manager; he appointed
Teruki Tabata as his assistant coach. At the
2021 World Cup, he led Japan to the best ever placing for an Asian nation in the competition by finishing as runners-up, losing to hosts Russia in the final. However Ozu was critical of his personal performances having only registered a single goal during the tournament. Regardless, he was then voted by fellow players and coaches as the best player in the world for the first time at November's
Beach Soccer Stars awards in
Dubai. Upon returning to Japan, Ozu and some fellow teammates were found to have breached
COVID-19 quarantine procedures; consequently, all accused were suspended from football activities for one month until January 2022 and Ozu apologised for his actions. ==Statistics==