Japan struggling to lure big-name coach

Former Asian champions Japan, who reached the last-16 at this year’s World Cup in South Africa, are struggling to sign a new coach from Europe or South America as they aim to improve for 2014.

“I have realised anew that Japan is in the Far East,” Japan Football Association (JFA) president Junji Ogura said about the challenge of luring coaches away from offers from European clubs and settling their families.

“It isn’t easy,” Ogura told Japanese media last week, pointing to the difficulty in replacing homegrown Takeshi Okada as national coach, with the prospect of living in Japan failing to woo prospective candidates.

Okada signalled before this summer’s World Cup that he would quit after the tournament, but the association only started talks in earnest with potential replacements only once the competition ended on July 11.

JFA technical director Hiromi Hara returned home from Europe on Tuesday after failing to sign Chilean Manuel Pellegrini, who was sacked as Real Madrid manager in May.

He also failed to sign Spaniard Ernesto Valverde who instead re-signed with Greek side Olympiakos.

Hara said on Wednesday that talks were still under way with three candidates and “I believe we’ll be there soon.” He did not give names or confirm reports that Japan offered the job to Spanish former FC Porto coach Victor Fernandez, or former Mexico coach Javier Aguirre.

Pellegrini turned down the offer partly for financial reasons, Hara said, adding that the coach and his staff feared “they would disappear from the European market if they stay away from Europe for a long time.”

Among the 32 finalists at South Africa 2010, Japan and North Korea are reported to be the only countries that have not yet organised themselves for the next World Cup in Brazil by retaining or replacing coaches.

As a result, Hara himself will stand in as a temporary coach when Japan play their first internationals since the World Cup at home against Paraguay and Guatemala on September 4 and 7.

“Japan is just a country in Asia, a developing football region,” the influential daily Asahi Shimbun commented.

“For a person with coaching experience in Europe, the job to keep himself in the ‘Far East’ until the next World Cup doesn’t look attractive.”

The daily said it had even become difficult for European countries to sign national coaches at a time when top clubs offer tens of millions of dollars to recruit coaches.

The annual wage for Japan’s new coach is estimated at 200 million yen (2.3 million dollars).

In South Africa, Japan reached the World Cup knockout stage for the first time on foreign soil but lost to Paraguay on penalties after a goalless 120 minutes.

Hara said the aim was to reach the quarter finals in 2014 and that he had drawn a shortlist of attack-minded coaches.

Three foreigners — Philippe Troussier, Zico and Ivica Osim — have coached Japan after Okada led the Blue Samurai to a winless World Cup debut in 1998 in his first stint as national coach.

Troussier was recommended by the French Football Federation and Zico and Osim guided J-League clubs before becoming national coach. Okada took over from Osim in late 2007 when the Bosnian suffered a stroke.