Urawa Red Diamonds to fire German coach: report

Urawa Red Diamonds will fire their German coach Gert Engels at the end of the season following their failure to defend their AFC Asian Champions League title, it was reported on Thursday.

“I was told that I will have no contract for next season. I must just accept it because of the differences in how we think,” the Sports Nippon daily quoted Engels as saying after meeting club president Mitsunori Fujiguchi on Wednesday.

Urawa were knocked out of the AFC Champions League last month in the semi-finals, losing 3-1 to Gamba Osaka after a 1-1 draw, leaving the German coach's future at the club in doubt.

Urawa's 2-1 loss to Shimizu S-Pulse in the J-League on Sunday apparently sealed his fate.

The club, in fourth place on 53 points — four points behind leaders Kashima Antlers with just two games left in the season — now has only a slim chance of winning the title.

It would be the second time this season that Urawa has fired a coach.

German Holger Osieck, who guided the club to victory in the AFC Champions League in 2007, was sacked in March after a series of poor performances.

The club has reportedly already invited another German candidate, Volker Finke, whom Fujiguchi is expected to meet after the next J-League game against Osaka this weekend.

Finke, born in 1948, coached second-division league side SC Freiburg from July 1991 to May 2008 to become the longest-serving coach in the history of German professional football.