With renewed determination, they will face the 2026/27 season, having earned their tenth star in this special season.
To experience once again the joy, excitement, and exhilaration of reaching the pinnacle,
What kind of evolution will the Gamba Warriors undergo to help the team achieve victory?
What kind of strength and resilience will they demonstrate on the pitch, and how will they bring joy to their fans and supporters?
This season's WE ARE GAMBA OSAKA is,
This session explores the "philosophy of evolution" that resides within each individual, revealing their determination for growth.

His professional career, which began in 2007, is now in its 20th year. Before he knew it, he was 37 years old—he's "grown up." As the oldest field player on the team, everyone naturally sees him as a veteran, but he himself laughs and says, "I'm finally becoming a veteran." It's not that he's unaware of his age; it's that he's living each day with such freshness.
"I don't think football is something you play with your age, so I don't think about how old I am or whether I'm a veteran. However, naturally, after being with the club for so long, my love for the club has deepened, and my desire to do what I can for the team has grown stronger every year."
"Along with that, my desire to improve at football has only grown stronger. If anything, my awareness of 'evolution' might be stronger than anyone else on the team.
"What I value most right now is challenging myself to do everything I want to try." Mostly it's about the structure of the body, how to move it, and training, but besides that, it's also about how to eat, or simply wanting to go to a certain restaurant or try a certain food. Including reading books and watching videos, since I was young, I've tried to follow my desires as much as possible, or rather, challenging myself has become a motto in life. If I don't think it suits me, I'll quit after a day (laughs)."
Among these, the attempt to understand my own body and use that to improve my play is one of the things I've continued for a long time. Every year, with each new season, I've tackled new menus, but for the past 10 months or so since the beginning of this year, I've focused on "how to move my body."
"It's difficult to explain, but simply put, it's about not moving your body just with your legs. It's about moving your body starting from your sacrum and dantian (lower abdomen). It's not difficult at all; anyone can do it if they are conscious of it... people with good intuition should be able to do it right away, and some people even naturally acquire that way of moving. It took me more than 10 years of trying various things to arrive at this." But now, I'm incredibly happy because I've finally found something that makes me think, "This is what I've been looking for!" (laughs). Of course, this isn't the finished product yet; I think there's still room for improvement and things I can add, but at this point, it feels the most comfortable to my body of all the things I've done so far. However, everyone has habits that have become ingrained in their bodies throughout their lives. It's not easy to naturally use the way I'm working on moving my body now, even when I'm out of breath during a match and the game is changing rapidly, so I've been steadily working on getting it ingrained in my body. When I can move like that, I feel like I'm moving incredibly well, and I'm able to make more of the plays I want to make. I think I'll be able to enjoy soccer even more once I've completely mastered this."

Kurata's interest in physical training, even now, stems from a sense of crisis about not being able to play the way he envisions.

"It's like I can't express what I think in my head directly in my play. After experiencing that feeling, I realized that if I'm going to do it, I want to play the way I want to no matter how old I get, and for that, I need my body." Otherwise, my presence wouldn't be beneficial to the team, would it? ...That sounds good, but maybe I'm just an experimenter.

He ended his statement with a joke, but "I want to play the way I want to play" is probably his true feeling. And that relentless pursuit is what supports Kurata's evolution.

— Interview and text by Takamura Misa

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