Hidetoshi Nakata, OSSI is a Japanese former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Considered one of the best talents to come from an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) country in the early late 1990s and early 2000s, Nakata became the first ever AFC player to be nominated for the Ballon d'Or; he also hold the record for most goals scored by an AFC player in the Serie A. He is widely considered to be one of the best Asian players of all time.

The Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity was founded as a national order by the first President of the Italian Republic, Enrico De Nicola, in 1947, to recognise civilian and military expatriates or foreigners who made an outstanding contribution to the reconstruction of Italy after World War II.