Kazuaki Yoshinaga as Albirex Niigata (S) head coach in July 2018.
SINGAPORE, 28 OCTOBER 2021 – Albirex Niigata (S) have gone for the familiar next season by appointing Kazuaki Yoshinaga as their new head coach.
The four-time Singapore Premier League (SPL) champions announced on Tuesday that Keiji Shigetomi, who has led the club for the past three seasons, will step down and be replaced by Yoshinaga for the 2022 season. The 53-year-old first took charge of the White Swans in 2017 and led them to the title, before famously retaining the crown with a historic unbeaten season in 2018.
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Yoshinaga told the Albirex website that his aim is to “get the title back” after the club were pipped to the 2021 crown by the Lion City Sailors. He added that he wanted a “a team of players who can behave appropriately for the title and live daily to realize it” and for the club to be a place “where Singaporeans and Japanese will always compete on an equality”.
Club news: NEW Head Coach of 2022 is YOSHINAGA Kazuaki! | Thank you, Head Coach Shigetomi!
The Fukuoka native had returned to parent club Albirex Niigata in Japan after his first stint in Singapore, where he first became their academy director before helming the club as head coach in April 2019. Yoshinaga returned to Singapore earlier this year to take up the technical director role at Albirex Niigata (S).
