If you ask As Roma's Japanese star Hidetoshi Nakata if he is tired of being called the "Samurai Warrior", "The Man From the Land of the Rising Sun", "The Star from the Orient" or something equally cliched, he pauses for a long moment before replying. He understands English but prefers to answer in his language, saying through an interpreter:

"No, this happens everywhere. In Japan, too, we have our stereotypes, we see all Italians as pasta-eating, etc. This is just one of those things and it doesn't particularly annoy me, but I would like to think that I might be able to contribute to changing or removing such stereotypes."

You could argue that, at the tender age of 23, Nakata has already done just that. He has after all overturned the perception that there is no such thing as a world class Japanese footballer.

As he sits chatting affably in the bar of Roma's plush training centre at Trigoria, Nakata comes across as quite different from his widespread Italian media portrait of "shy" and "withdrawn". Fresh-faced and welcoming, he says that the only thing he really misses about back home are allnight convenience stores.

Sure of himself, he comes across as intelligent, independent, and reflective. Every question is weighed carefully. Ask for a "Best Team Played This Season" and he says that it is too simple to point to one side or another. On a good day, Cagliari can give you as much trouble as Juventus.

On the January day this year that he was formally presented by Roma to the media and fans, he was asked how it felt to be stepping into the shoes of former Roma legends such as the Brazilian Falcao.

"I'm sorry. I know Falcao by name, but I never saw him play," came the reply.

In some senses, the question was almost as revealing as Nakata's honest answer. When the imperious Falcao was winning a 1983 league title for Roma, Nakata was a skinny six-year-old kicking up the dust in the back streets of Yamanashi, Japan. Baseball stars were his childhood idols and football was something he would discover only two years later with a school team.

Nakata is many things to many people. For the folks back home in Japan he is a megastar; for soccer critics he is a "trailblazer" and ambassador for the country that will play co-host (with South Korea) to the next World Cup; for the mighty but not yet politically correct Italian sports media he is the star with "almondshaped eyes"; for sports-business analysts he is the shape of the future.

As far as Leeds United are concerned, though, he is one hell of a good player who will need close monitoring in tonight's UEFA Cup tie at the Olympic Stadium. Combative, able to play off either foot, able to combine midfield ball-winning skills with playmaking and goalscoring, he is a quintessentially modern footballer.

When minor Serie A club Perugia splashed out $4 million for Nakata during the France'98 World Cup, many scoffed at the idea of a Japanese player trying his hand in what is arguably the toughest league in the world. By the time Perugia sold Nakata to Roma in January for $25 million people had stopped carping.

When talking about Nakata, it can be difficult to get away from money. He now has estimated after-tax earnings of $4 million, coming both from his five-year contract with Roma and from endorsement contracts with Asahi (drinks), Subaru and Mastercard. Furthermore, negotiations are under way for a sportswear contract with Nike.

His agent, Maurizio Morana runs the public side of Nakata's life very carefully. For example, on arrival in the notoriously difficult piazza of Rome, he opted for a low profile approach to the local and national media so as not to put noses out of joint.

"If we do our job well, then Nakata is free to concentrate on his soccer," says Morana.

And that is indeed what Nakata likes to do. A clean-living, early-to-bed boy, he was so concerned about maintaining top fitness that he began this season with a week of individual training on the Pacific Island of Guam. After hours, he lies low in his apartment in EUR, the Mussolini-era suburb of Rome close to the Trigoria training ground.

He spends a lot of time each day in front of the computer, trying to reply to some of the average 500 e-mails he receives on his Internet site (www.nakata.net), which registers up to 200,000 "hits" per day and which went haywire on the day of his transfer to Roma, registering six million hits.

And Leeds United?

"I know they are a young side with many talented young players, but I don't know much else. I don't get time to watch English soccer much."

Study time begins this evening.