Professional baseball Softbank announced that Kimiyasu Kudo, who led the team to Japan's number one five times, will retire for this season only and will hold a press conference on the 27th.
4th place confirmed this season, 3 league championships in 7 years, 5 times in Japan
Softbank won the game against Lotte on the night of the 25th, but finished the season in 4th place with 60 wins, 62 losses and 21 draws, and was below the 4th place for the first time since the season eight years ago.
And on the 26th, the team announced that Kudo, who was in the second year of the two-year contract, will retire for this season only and will hold a press conference on the 27th.
Director Kudo is 58 years old.
Inaugurated in 2015, he won the league three times in seven years and won the number one spot in Japan five times, including four consecutive years.
Sadaharu Oh, the president of the team, said, "What he left for the team is wonderful and he did his best."