The Basque coach Michelangelo Lotina will leave the bench of Cherry
Osaka and will go on to train the also Japanese Shimizu S-Pulse in the next season of the J-League That will start in February, according to a source close to the matter to the Kyodo agency today.
Shimizu will look for a revulsion with the arrival of Lotina after finishing penultimate in the Japanese first division this year, in which he fired Australian Peter Cklamovski in November after having added only three victories in the first 25 days.
Cklamovski was replaced until the end of the season (concluded yesterday in Japan) by the Japanese Hiroaki Hiraoka who could not prevent Shimizu from finishing as the most thrashed team in the J1 League with 70 goals against.
In Japan, Lotina coached Tokyo Verdy in the second division in 2017 and 2018 before going on to coach Cerezo Osaka for the last two seasons.
Lotina, 63, managed to place Cerezo in fifth position and make them the team with the least thrashed last year and this year he left them in fourth place, just three points behind the place for the Asian Champions League play-offs .
The Biscayan coach began his career at Logroñés in the nineties before starting a journey through the benches of half Spain (he has trained Badajoz, Numancia, Osasuna, Celta, Espanyol, Real Sociedad, Deportivo and Villarreal).
In 2013 he went on to coach Cypriot AC Omonia and then spent two seasons at Qatari Al-Shahania and made the leap to Japan.