Okada Takeshi

Okada Takeshi is a Japanese national soccer team manager. He started playing soccer in Sumiyoshi Junior High school. In Tennoji High School, his body and soul was absorbed in soccer and appeared on the stage of the Asia Youth Festival. He enrolled in Waseda University after he studied eagerly for extra year,but didn't join the soccer club in the university for months.

In 1980 he decided to enter Furukawa-Denkou(now JEF Ichihara) even though he wanted to go to media-industry at first. He played 189 games in the JFL. Especially in 1985 he led Furukawa to Asia Club Champion as the team captain. He had experienced 26 of international games as one of the national team's defenders.

In 1990 he retired and became a coach of the Furukawa team. In 1992 he went to Germany for a year to study coaching. At first he couldn't find any good environment to learn coaching skills, but he spent more than half year adapting himself to team as a trainee. There he got a policy "A coacher has to have a immovable faith while considering the player's opinions

In 1994 he had contract with JEF United (J league) as a profesional coach. At the end of the year he accepted Japan national team's offer to become the head coach.

In October 1997, the Japanese soccer team was almost dead in Asia qualifications for the World Cup. At such time he happened to manage Japanese National team after former manager, Kamo Shu. This was the first time for him to be a manager even though he had considerable coaching experience. He decided bravely to succeed to Kamo's team. He was always saying "I don't need any player who doesn't fight 100%." "I don't need any media to keep my faith. His strong fighting spirit, faith and heartwarming humanity have brought Japan back to life. Finally Japan got a ticket to France World Cup in 1998.

In the French World Cup, Japan lost all three games, but he did his best.

References: "Taisenkoku kettei!" Nikkan Sports Graph. 1997

Reported by: Shuhei Uede
Data verified by: Katunori Okui
Date of Report: 18 December 1997
Updated by: Narui Ayumu, May 1998

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