Photo/Illutration Koyo Matsuura, who plays for the second team of the Tochigi City football club, drives a bus in Utsunomiya on April 18. (Satoshi Okamoto)

UTSUNOMIYA—At 26, Koyo Matsuura has reached the average age of retirement for footballers, but the amateur player keeps hitting the pitch in hopes of landing a professional contract.

And if that never happens, the defender has a backup plan, thanks to his team’s sponsor.

Matsuura is a member of U-25, the Tochigi City football club’s second team, which plays in an amateur company league in the prefecture.

In February, after obtaining a special Class 2 driver’s license and completing his training, Matsuura started working part-time as a contract driver for Kanto Transportation Inc., a bus company headquartered here that sponsors the team.

He is one of seven Tochigi City footballers who work as bus drivers based on a partnership forged between the team and Kanto Transportation in spring.

The arrangement benefits both sides.

The new drivers help the bus company deal with its serious labor shortage.

And the players gain a steady income as well as an employment option after they hang up their cleats.

“I can work more flexible hours and earn more than my previous jobs,” Matsuura said. “I can also concentrate on my training.”

He said he recently started to think about life without soccer.

“With a bus driver’s license, I can work after I retire,” he said. “I really appreciate it.”

One weekday afternoon in mid-April, Matsuura finished a practice session and headed to his workplace 40 kilometers away.

It was his fourth day driving solo on a fixed bus route connecting a suburban area and JR Utsunomiya Station.

As he navigated the bus smoothly through narrow, winding streets, Matsuura made polite announcements to passengers: “We will make a right turn shortly. Please be careful.”

Matsuura worked until just after 11 p.m., but he still had to attend a soccer practice the next morning.

“He learns quickly because he is young,” Reiichi Ishihara, managing director at the company, said of Matsuura. “He is a reliable, work-ready new employee.”

Currently, 27 players aged between 18 and 28 belong to U-25 of Tochigi City, which is in the J3 division of the professional J.League.

Each U-25 player works to earn a living as they strive for professional contracts. But it is difficult for them to work full time because practices and matches take up much of their time.

As the team and sponsor discussed ways to support the players, they came up with the idea of employing them as bus drivers.

The athletes are given flexible work schedules to prevent the job from interfering with their training.

“For now, it’s like we are rooting for them as soccer fans, but we would appreciate it if they came back as drivers someday,” Ishihara said.

One long-standing problem for athletes is how to build a career after retirement. Even professional footballers retire from the field at around 26 years old on average.

Although many of the young retirees pursue soccer-related jobs, the opportunities are limited, a Tochigi City official said.

But an increasing number of corporate sponsors are helping the athletes.

FC Gifu, which is also in the J3 division, and Gifu-based sports goods retailer Himaraya Co. struck a business tie-up in 2022 to help team players find second careers through job training and other retirement preparations.

Since April, Iris Ohyama Inc., a major daily goods manufacturer headquartered in Sendai, has helped active athletes plan their post-retirement lives.

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