PLYMOUTH Argyle have a new president, Japanese footballer

Yasuhiko Okudera.

Okudera, who is currently also the President of the J-League

club Yokohama, was the unanimous choice of the Argyle directors

to become the club's global ambassador.

His appointment further strengthens then Pilgrims' expansion

into the Far East, following the addition of Japanese

businessman Yasuaki Kagami to the Argyle Board of

Directors.

According to Argyle, in his own country, Okudera is to Japan

what Bobby Charlton is to England, or Franz Beckenbauer to

Germany - a highly respected living footballing legend.

Pilgrims' chairman Paul Stapleton said: "We are delighted

that Mr Okudera has accepted our invitation to become the new

President of Plymouth Argyle.

"We consider ourselves highly honoured that someone with so

great a standing in world football has agreed to take on such a

hugely important role.

"Mr Okudera's standing in the Far East, and particularly in

Japan, is wihout parallel. When he speaks, people listen.

"His name alone will open new doors and present new

opportunities for us, especially in the commercial sphere, that

would otherwise remain closed to us."

As well as winning 32 caps for his country, Okudera was the

man who blazed the trail for every player from Japan who has

ever played in Europe.

He was the first Japanese footballer to play professionally

in Europe, three decades ago. He joined FC Köln in the late

summer of 1977, and became the first Japanese player to appear

in a European league match on October 5 that year, when he made

his debut in an away game against MSV Duisburg

Midfielder Okudera also played for Hertha Berlin and Werder

Bremen, making 235 appearances in the Bundesliga, and scoring

25 goals.

Odukera was invited to join Köln by coach Hennes Weisweiler

after his works club, Furukawa Electric Co Ltd, whose amateur

team played in the top-flight corporate Japan Soccer League,

toured Germany.

It was in his first season, durng which Köln won the

Budesliga and German Cup Double, that he learned the European

approach to the game.

He said: "The instant I got the ball, my team-mates would

cry out for a pass and I would always oblige. However,

sometimes you need to take it on yourself to show your true

worth as a player.

"That is one of the things I learnt under Weisweiler - you

have to look out for number one, because no-one else will do it

for you."

Odukera also helped Köln to the semi-finals of the European

Champions' Cup, the forerunner of the Champions' League, in

1979, scoring with his first kick in a semi-final encounter

with Nottingham Forest after coming on a substitute.

Following the departure of his mentor Weisweiler to New York

Cosmos in 1980, Okudera dropped down a division to join

promotion-chasing Hertha BSC Berlin. Their challenge faded

after losing a vital match to Werder Bremen, whose coach Otto

Rehhagel duly signed him.

In five seasons at Bremen, operating largely in a defensive

role, Odukera helped Bremen to runners-up spot three times,

losing the third of those challenges to Bayern Munich only on

goal-difference.

In the summer of 1986, Okudera returned to Furukuwa

Electric, and became one of the first recognized professional

players in the Japanese Soccer League, before retiring from

playing in 1988.

Adjusting back to the amateur game was not easy. He said: "I

was not a playmaker type, I was the kind of player that needed

the players around me to play well in order for me to raise my

game. When my team-mates were amateur level, I was never able

to fulfil my potential on the pitch."

After the J-League superseded the JSL in 1993, he became

both president and manager of Furukawa, which had

metamorphosised into JEF United Ichihara, with limited

success.

In 1998, he joined his Köln teammate Pierre Littbarski to

form Yokohama FC. With Okudera as president and general

manager, and Littbarski the manager, Yokohama climbed up the

ranks from the lower-tier Japan Football League and were

promoted to the J-League's first division in December 2006.

Okudera's staus in the world game was underlined in December

2003, when he and former South Korean star Cha Bum-Kun were the

Asian representatives at the preliminary draw for the 2006 FIFA

World Cup.

Mr Okudera, 56, is due to meet the Argyle board today, along

with Mr Kagami.