Eyebrows were certainly raised when Yokohama F. Marinos made the left field decision to hire Steve Holland as its new manager ahead of the 2025 J. League season, but few expected the Englishman to be gone before Golden Week.
Despite securing progression to the quarterfinals of the Asian Champions League Elite — where Marinos will take on Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia this weekend — results proved harder to come by in the league, and the 54-year-old coach was dismissed on April 18 with the club languishing in the lower reaches of the J1 table after managing just one win in its opening 11 games.
Holland arrived in Japan having spent the previous eight years as Gareth Southgate’s assistant with the England national team, and while untested as a head coach in his own right, he had built up an impressive resume after helping lead the Three Lions to back-to-back European Championship finals and a World Cup semifinal.
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