Masahiro Shimoda

Masahiro Shimoda
霜田正浩
Personal information
Full name	Masahiro Shimoda
Date of birth	February 10, 1967 (age 54)
Place of birth	Toshima, Tokyo, Japan
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
1982–1984
Senior career*
Teams managed
2006	YSCC Yokohama
2013	Japan U-23
2018–2020	Renofa Yamaguchi FC
2021	Saigon
2021-	Omiya Ardija
Shonan Bellmare
	* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Masahiro Shimoda (霜田正浩, Shimoda Masahiro, born February 10, 1967) is a Japanese football player and manager.

Playing career[]

Shimoda was born in Toshima, Tokyo on February 10, 1967. After three years at Takashima High School, he opted for a trip away from Japan. He studied in Brazil, played in the youth ranks of Santos, where he met Kazuyoshi Miura and César Sampaio.^[1] He returned to Japan and played in the old Japan Soccer League, but he retired at only 27 years old.^[2]

Coaching career[]

Shimoda tried to have a career in the coaching world, managing the youth side at Kyoto Purple Sanga, but he was also the men behind the return of Miura to Japan in 1999, when the striker opted to sign for Sanga from Dinamo Zagreb.^[3] He was as well behind some FC Tokyo's football operations concerning the acquisition of foreign players in the early 2000s. After getting a coach patent, he managed YSCC Yokohama for a couple of months. He also managed the reserves of JEF United Chiba, but in the end Japan Football Association asked him in 2009 to be in the Technical Committee through a direct request from their chairman, Hiromi Hara.^[4] Shimoda accepted and he stayed in charge as a scout for seven years, also briefly managing the Japan U-23 national team in 2013.

In 2017, he was also the reserve head coach at Sint-Truidense, in Belgium.^[5] He went back to Japan in 2018, when he accepted the offer of Renofa Yamaguchi FC to be the next head coach.^[6]