{"id":297781,"date":"2019-04-18T06:00:15","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T20:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=297781"},"modified":"2019-04-18T06:00:15","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T20:00:15","slug":"record-m-league-stint-for-japanese-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/record-m-league-stint-for-japanese-player\/","title":{"rendered":"Record M-League stint for Japanese player"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_297798\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-297798\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/mleauepix.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-297798\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dan Ito, right, poses for a photo with CNMI National Team head coach Michiteru Mita, as they wait for their game in the 2019 Spring Men\u2019s M-League last Sunday at the NMI Soccer Training Center in Koblerville. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When Former J League player Dan Ito bids for a Guinness World Record, the CNMI would be part of that history.<\/p>\n<p>Ito played in the 2019 Spring Men\u2019s M-League last Sunday at the NMI Soccer Training Center in Koblerville and suited up for the Old B Bank. The Japanese is gunning for the record for \u201cplaying for most number of countries, with the Commonwealth stop marking his 22nd.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am excited to play here and see what kind of football game does this island play,\u201d said Ito, who also managed to watch the game between Korean Football Association on Saipan and Matansa before he played for the Old B Bank in its match versus TanHoldings Football Club.<\/p>\n<p>Ito went on to score the last goal in Old B Bank\u2019s 4-1 victory over TanHoldings, as he lit up the board in the 86th minute.<\/p>\n<p>The 43-year-old is now back in Guam where he is playing for the Rovers FC in Division 1 of the Budweiser Guam Men\u2019s Soccer League. Besides Guam and the CNMI, the midfielder has seen action in his home country, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Timor Leste, Bhutan, Laos, Mongolia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Maldives, Hong Kong, Macau, and India.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am fortunate to have the opportunity to play in many countries and experience different cultures,\u201d said Ito, who hinted at retirement after more than 20 years in the sport.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am not getting any younger and I want to move to another phase of my career, maybe try coaching, beginning in the youth level, just like what my friends do,\u201d the Hokkaido native said.<\/p>\n<p>Ito added he hopes to return to Saipan and stay longer so he can meet more players and possibly hold clinics here.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would love to share my knowledge in the sport. I know Saipan like football very much and many youth are interested in it. The facility is great and more people will come here in the future to play or train,\u201d the former Sendai University player said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Former J League player Dan Ito bids for a Guinness World Record, the CNMI&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":297798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}