Gamba Osaka, which is in the 17th place in J1, announced that the contract with Tomohiro Katanozaka, who has been in charge for the first year, will be canceled and Hiroshi Matsuda will be appointed as the successor.
This season, Gamba has entrusted manager Katanozaka, who has a track record of promoting Oita Trinita from J3 to J1 in just three years, to rebuild the team that finished 13th in the previous season.
However, due to the long-term absence of the main player, Takashi Usami, due to an injury, the team's results have not improved since the opening of the season, and they have not won the last 6 league matches, and are sluggish to 17th place, which is automatically demoted to J2. increase.
Under these circumstances, Gamba announced on the 17th that he would cancel the contract with Director Katanozaka, and that Mr. Matsuda, who had been appointed as Gamba's coach this month, would be appointed as the successor to Vissel Kobe and J2's V-Varen Nagasaki.
Manager Katanozaka commented through the club, "I fought to share the joy with everyone, but I couldn't live up to expectations due to my lack of ability, and I was disappointed and could only produce disappointing results." .
Also, the new head coach Matsuda commented, ``We will focus only on winning the game in front of us and overcome the difficult situation.''