On first look, the fact that Cerezo have retained the services of the likes of Hotaru Yamaguchi and Takahiro Ogihara among others, as well as Diego Forlan and Cacau, would suggest that they’ll walk this division. But they were one of the pre-season favourites for J1 last season. The rest is history! Cerezo did lose Kenyu Sugimoto to Kawasaki Fron- tale, and Takumi MInamino to Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg but this may well free up some space for the likes of Forlan and Cacau to be be able to show what they can do given the starts. Both players were certainly a huge disappointment last season and may well not be missed at all! Also coming in to bolster the forward line is 34-year-old former national teamer Keiji Tamada, who was released by Nagoya Grampus.
New faces include Pablo Felipe (on loan from Atlético Paranaense) and Sota Nakazawa (Kawasaki Frontale – loan), while FC Tokyo defender Kenta Mukuhara – who played at Cerezo in 2013 joins on a full transfer. Other notable changes include Daiki Kogure returning from his loan spell at Tokushima Vortis, the return of Teruyuki Moniwa from his stint in Thailand, and Hideo Hashimoto coming in from Vissel Kobe.
The team also, of course, welcomes a new manager in former Kashima Antlers boss Paulo Autuori. The Cerezo job is his 28th appointment in 27 years as a manager since he first took the top job at Portugal’s Nacional in 1987! The seemingly revolving door of the manager’s office at Cerezo might not be too much of a shock for him, then!
Cerezo SHOULD be easily challenging for the top spot and will be EXPECTING to win an automatic promotion spot. Anything less will be considered a failure.
Web site – www.cerezo.co.jp
English at www.eng.cerezo.co.jp
Thai at www.thai.cerezo.co.jp
Bahasa Indonesian at www.indn.cerezo.co.jp
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/officialcerezoosakaenglish
English Twitter – @crz_english
YouTube – www.youtube.com/user/CerezoOsakaOfficial
The 2015 shirts!