Japan defender Tulio headed abroad: report

Japan’s key defender Marcus Tulio Tanaka has decided to leave his J-League side Urawa Reds for a club overseas, ahead of his World Cup challenge, a press report said on Friday.

The 28-year-old Brazilian-born centre back said he had received offers from clubs in the Gulf states of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the Nikkan Sports reported.

He has also been approached by clubs in the English Premier League, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, the daily added.

“The European and Mideast sides have presented me with terms equal to what I get now,” the Nikkan Sports quoted Tulio as saying in Port Elizabeth where Japan were due to play a friendly against South Africa on Saturday.

“I want to consult with my agent and make up my mind by November 25 after returning to Japan,” said the attack-minded defender, who has scored six goals in 30 games for Japan since his international debut after the 2006 World Cup.

His annual salary is estimated at 120 million yen (1.3 million dollars). His contract with Urawa is to expire after the J-League season ends in December.

Urawa Reds spokeswoman Naoko Arai said, “We are negotiating with him in all sincerity after making an offer to him.”

The 1.85-metre tall Tulio said: “I love Urawa Reds. This feeling of mine will never change if I leave the team. I love the supporters from the bottom of my heart. But I also want to care about my football life.”

Tulio first came to Japan, his father’s homeland, at the age of 16, to be enrolled at a high school as an exchange student and football player. He joined the J-League Sanfrecce Hiroshima in 2001.

He moved to Urawa in 2004 after a year on loan to a second division side and helped the country’s best-supported team win the AFC Champions League title in 2007. He obtained Japanese nationality in 2003.