Nils Nielsen named Head Coach of Japan WNT

The Japan Football Association has today announced the appointment of Danish head coach Nils Nielsen.

The role with Nadeshiko Japan comes following Nils’ departure from his Director of Football roles at Manchester City earlier this year, and marks a return to coaching after two years away from the grass.

Japan reached the quarter-finals at both the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and 2024 Olympics and Nils will be tasked with bringing together an exciting squad and leading them toward their lofty potential.

The Japanese are currently ranked #7 in FIFA’s women’s football ranking and many of the national team player pool will be familiar to Nils, with four players currently playing at his former Club Manchester City and 10 in total from the WSL, with further players in Europe and North America, as well as at home in Japan.

Speaking about the appointment, Nils said: “I am extremely honored and proud to be appointed as the new coach of Nadeshiko Japan. I am very happy to be working with such a skilled and talented group of Japanese national team players and am excited to build on the great achievements of all the coaches so far.

“With my appointment, I would like to inject new inspiration and ideas into the team with a fresh perspective and work with the players and staff to lead them to success and win titles. Japan has been an inspiration to teams around the world for a long time. We will all work hard to continue to do so in the future.”

The new position is Nils’ first head coach role since leaving Switzerland at the end of 2022, where he led the team to consecutive major tournament qualifications.  Prior to this, he served as a coach with China at the 2018 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup.  In the new role, Nils will be looking to replicate his success with Denmark, where he led the team to a runners-up medal at EURO 2017 and was a finalist for FIFA Best Women’s Manager.

Nils will fly to Japan next week to meet the Japanese media for the first time.