Akira Nishino

is a former Japanese football player and manager. He played for the Japan national team. He also managed the Japan national team.

Biography
Nishino was born in Saitama on April 7. 1955. After graduating from Waseda University, he joined Japan Soccer League club Hitachi in 1978. The club won the 2nd place at 1980 JSL Cup and 1982 Japan Soccer League. He was elected Best Eleven in 1985/86 season. He retired in 1990.

In March 1977, when Nishino was a Waseda University student, he was selected in Japan national team for 1978 World Cup qualification. At this qualification, on 6 March, he debuted against Israel. He played 12 games and scored 1 goal for Japan until 1978.

After retirement, in 1990, Nishino became an assistant coach for Hitachi (later Kashiwa Reysol). From 1991, he managed the Japan U-20 national team and Japan U-23 national team. At U-23 Japan in 1996 Summer Olympics qualifiers, Japan qualified to 1996 Summer Olympics for the first time in 28 years since 1968 Summer Olympics, where Japan won the bronze medal. At 1996 Olympics, although Japan won 2 matches, Japan lost in the First round. At this time, Japan beat Brazil in first game. It was known as the "Miracle of Miami" (マイアミの奇跡) in Japan.

In 1997, Nishino returned to Kashiwa Reysol and became an assistant coach. In 1998, he became a manager. In 1999, he led the club to win the J.League Cup. In 2000, the club won the 3rd place in J1 League for 2 years in a row and he received "Best Managers award". However, he was sacked for poor performance in July 2001. In 2002, he signed with Gamba Osaka. In 2005, the club won J1 League for the first time in club history and he was selected for the "Best Manager award". In 2008, the club won AFC Champions League and the 3rd place at Club World Cup. He was also selected "AFC Coach of the Year awards". The club also won the 2007 J.League Cup, the 2008 and the 2009 Emperor's Cup. He resigned end of 2011 season. In May 2012, he signed with Vissel Kobe as Masahiro Wada's successor. However, he was sacked in November. In 2014, he signed with Nagoya Grampus and managed the club until 2015.

In March 2016, Nishino returned to the Japan Football Association as a technical director. In April 2018, Japan national team manager Vahid Halilhodžić was sacked and Nishino was named as the new manager. In the 2018 World Cup, Japan qualified to the knockout stage, becoming the only Asian team to do so in the World Cup. However, his Japan lost 2–3 to Belgium despite having led 2–0, thus were eliminated from the tournament.

In 2019, Nishino was selected Japan Football Hall of Fame.

In July 2019, Nishino became a manager Thailand national team and Thailand U-23 national team.

Statistics

|-
|1978||rowspan="12"|Hitachi||rowspan="9"|JSL Division 1||13||1
|-
|1979||12||0
|-
|1980||15||6
|-
|1981||8||1
|-
|1982||15||4
|-
|1983||18||2
|-
|1984||17||2
|-
|1985/86||22||12
|-
|1986/87||17||1
|-
|1987/88||rowspan="2"|JSL Division 2||21||1
|-
|1988/89||28||2
|-
|1989/90||JSL Division 1||6||0
192||32
192||32
|}

|-
|1977||4||0
|-
|1978||8||1
|-
!Total||12||1
|}

References

Other websites
 
 Japan Football Hall of Fame at Japan Football Association

1955 births
Living people
Footballers from Saitama Prefecture
Japan international footballers
Japanese football managers
Japan Soccer League players
Kashiwa Reysol players
Japan national football team managers