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.
192||32
192||32
!Total||12||1
Kota Yoshihara
Yoshihara was born in Fujiidera on February 2, 1978. After graduating from Hatsushiba Hashimoto High School, he joined Japan Football League club Consadole Sapporo in 1996. The club won the champions in 1997 and was promoted to J1 League. However the club was relegated to new league J2 League in 1999. He moved to his local club Gamba Osaka in 2000. Although he became a regular player from 2001, his opportunity to play decreased from 2003. He moved to Omiya Ardija in 2006. He moved to Mito HollyHock in 2009. He made an announcement to retire on February 2, 2013, on his 35th birthday.
In June 1999, Yoshihara was selected Japan national team for 1999 Copa América. At this competition, on July 2, he debuted against Paraguay.
397||105||33||10||44||9||474||124
397||105||33||10||44||9||474||124
!Total||1||0
Makoto Hasebe
Hasebe was born in Fujieda on January 18, 1984. After graduating from Fujieda Higashi High School, he joined J1 League club Urawa Reds in 2002. He became a regular palyer in the 2003 season. He played mainly as defensive midfielder with Keita Suzuki. Urawa won the championship in the 2006 J1 League for the first time in the club history and the first Asian title of the 2007 AFC Champions League. In January 2008, he moved to German Bundesliga club Wolfsburg. The club won the champions in the 2008/09 season. He played 135 matches for the club. In summer 2013, he moved to Nürnberg. However the club was relegated to 2. Bundesliga end of the 2013/14 season. In summer 2014, he move to Eintracht Frankfurt.
On February 10, 2006, he debuted for the Japan national team against United States. Although he could not play at all in 2007, Takeshi Okada became a new manager in December 2007 and he was selected the Japan again in May 2008. After that, he became a regular player as defensive midfielder with Yasuhito Endo. Hasebe was selected the Japan for 2010 World Cup. He was named a Japan's captain from the 2010 World Cup and played all 4 matches. Japan qualified to the knockout stage. In 2011, he participated 2011 Asian Cup. he played all 6 matches and Japan won the champions. From late 2013, Hasebe played as defensive midfielder with Hotaru Yamaguchi instead of Endo. He also played at 2014 World Cup and 2015 Asian Cup. In 2018, he was selected the Japan for 2018 World Cup. He played all 4 matches as defensive midfielder with Gaku Shibasaki and Japan qualified to the knockout stage. After the 2018 World Cup, he retired from Japan national team. He played 114 games and scored 2 goals for Japan until 2018.
149||12||15||6||35||5||11||2||210||25
311||7||28||0||colspan="2"|-||41||1||380||8
460||19||43||6||35||5||52||3||590||33
!Total||114||2
Andy O'Brien
Andy O'Brien (born 29 June 1979) is an Irish football player. He plays for Bolton Wanderers.
350||10||22||1||28||0||36||0||436||11
350||10||22||1||28||0||36||0||436||11
!Total||26||1
Gary Doherty
Gary Doherty (born 31 January 1980) is an Irish football player. He plays for Norwich City.
296||21||25||7||19||1||340||29
296||21||25||7||19||1||340||29
!Total||33||4
Bundesliga
The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a football league which is top division in Germany. The league has 18 teams, and the teams can be relegated to 2. Fußball-Bundesliga. Most games are played on Saturdays and Sundays, with some games being played during the week.
Since 1963, FC Bayern Munich has almost completely dominated the league, winning 30 times. However, the league has seen other champions, such as Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Hamburger SV, Werder Bremen, VfB Stuttgart, VfL Wolfsburg and so on. The Bundesliga is one of the top leagues, currently ranked 4th place in UEFA's UEFA coefficient. The league has a very high average attendance, the top association football league in the world.
The current champions are FC Bayern Munich.
VfB Stuttgart
VfB Stuttgart is the name of a football club in Germany. The club was founded in 1893 and won the German championship five times (1950, 1952, 1984, 1992, 2007).
VfL Bochum
The Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 (VfL Bochum) is a football and Sports club in Bochum, Germany.
Besides football, the VfL Bochum operates the following kinds of sport: Badminton, Basketball, Fencing, Ice hockey, athletics, Handball, Swimming, dance sport, Tennis, Table tennis and Volleyball.
Graham Stack
Graham Stack (born 26 September 1981) is an Irish football player. He plays for Hibernian.
46||0||5||0||14||0||2||0||67||0
16||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||16||0
0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0
62||0||5||0||14||0||2||0||83||0
Clinton Morrison
Clinton Morrison (born 14 May 1979) is an Irish former professional football player.
416||127||20||2||28||12||464||141
416||127||20||2||28||12||464||141
!Total||36||9
Kevin Kilbane
Kevin Kilbane (born 1 February 1977) is an Irish retired football player.
462||32||26||3||27||2||4||0||519||37
462||32||26||3||27||2||4||0||519||37
!Total||102||7
Colin Healy
Colin Healy (born 14 March 1980) is an Irish football player. He plays for Falkirk.
39||3||4||0||5||1||9||1||57||5
50||2||2||0||4||0||colspan="2"|-||56||2
62||2||||||||||||||62||2
151||7||6||0||9||1||9||1||175||8
!Total||13||1
John O'Shea
John O'Shea (born 30 April 1981) is an Irish football player. He currently plays for Reading. He also played for the Republic of Ireland national team, before retiring from international football in 2018.
231||10||24||1||28||2||67||2||350||15
14||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||0||0||14||0
245||10||24||1||28||2||67||2||364||15
!Total||60||1
Steve Finnan
Steve Finnan (born 24 April 1976) is an Irish football player. He plays for Portsmouth.
468||17||36||2||26||0||54||0||584||19
4||0||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||4||0
472||17||36||2||26||0||54||0||588||19
!Total||53||2
Stephen Carr
Stephen Carr (born 29 August 1976) is an Irish football player. He has played for Republic of Ireland national team.
317||8||27||0||22||1||21||0||387||9
317||8||27||0||22||1||21||0||387||9
!Total||44||0
Hisashi Kato