Earlier this month, the Football Association of Thailand (FAT) announced the appointment of coach Akira Nishino as captain of the national team as well as the U23 team. However, just one day later, the Japanese strategist denied this information in an interview with his hometown press. He insists he only had meals with chairman FAT and Somyot Poompanmoung and had not signed any contracts.
After the uproar and controversy, the two sides finally resolved all the problems. Before the draw for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, on the homepage, FAT announced that it had officially appointed Mr. Akira Nishino as the head coach of the national team and the U23 Thailand team:
The Football Association of Thailand is delighted to officially announce that Mr. Akira Nishino has been appointed as the head coach of the Thai national team and the Thai U23 team.
The appointment of Mr. Nishino has marked a historic milestone for Thai football when he became the first Asian coach to lead the Thai national team. The official signing ceremony and press conference will take place in Japan on July 19.
Coach Nishino has a lot of experience working with teams such as U20, U23 and the Japanese national team. At club level, he has led Kashiwa Reysol, Gamba Osaka, Vissel Kobe and Nagoya Grampus, all of whom are famous in the land of the rising sun.
Most notably and impressively, he and the Japanese team reached the quarter-finals of the 2018 World Cup, and only accepted a comeback loss to Belgium - the 3rd-placed team in this tournament. Japan is also the only Asian team to qualify for the 2018 World Cup group stage.
Also at the 2018 World Cup, Mr. Akira and the Japanese team made history with a 2-1 victory over Colombia. This is the first victory of a team from Asia against a South American opponent at the biggest football festival on the planet.
Coach Nishino's most successful period at the club level was when he led Gamba Osaka for 10 years. Here, he won the national championship in 2005 and won the AFC Champions League in 2008, was twice voted the best coach of J.League in 2000 and 2005, as well as voted the number one coach of the continent by the Asian Football Confederation in 2008.
Mr. Nishino Akira's task will be to lead the "War Elephants" in the upcoming 2022 World Cup and 2023 Asian Cup Second qualifiers, as well as at the 2020 SEA Games and VCK U23 Asia. This is an interesting thing because according to the results of the draw for the second qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup in Asia, the Thai Open and the Vietnamese Open are in Group G with Malaysia, Indonesia and the UAE.
