Tsutomu Ogura

Tsutomu Ogura
小倉勉
Personal information
Full name	Tsutomu Ogura
Date of birth	July 18, 1963 (age 61)
Place of birth	Osaka, Japan
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Singapore (Head Coach)
Youth career
1982–1984	Settsu High School
College career
Years	Team
1985–1988	Tenri University
Managerial career
1990–1992	Werder Bremen (youth)
1996–2005	JEF United Chiba (assistant)
2006–2010	Japan (assistant)
2010–2012	Japan Olympics (assistant)
2013	Omiya Ardija
2014–2015	Ventforet Kofu (assistant)
2015–2016	JEF United Chiba (assistant)
2018–2022	Yokohama F. Marinos (sporting director)
2022–2023	Tokyo Verdy (assistant)
2024–	Singapore

Tsutomu Ogura (小倉勉, Ogura Tsutomu, born July 18, 1963) is a Japanese football manager and former player. He is currently the head coach of the Singapore national team.^[1]

Coaching career

In 1990, Ogura was selected to become the head coach of the Germany club Werder Bremen youth.

Ogura became the assistant coach for JEF United Ichihara from 1996 until 2005 seeing the club win the 2005 J.League Cup while working under head coach Ivica Osim.

In 2006, Ogura became assistant coach for the Japan national team under managers rejoining Ivica Osim (2006–2007) and Takeshi Okada (2008–2010) where Ogura was part of the squad that advanced to the knockout round in during 2010 FIFA World Cup.

After the FIFA World Cup, Ogura became an assistant coach for the Japan U23 national team aiming to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics under manager Takashi Sekizuka. Japan advanced to the semi-finals in 2012 Summer Olympics.

After the Summer Olympics, Ogura became the assistant coach for Omiya Ardija, a Japanese club playing in the J1 League under manager Zdenko Verdenik.^[2] In August 2013, Verdenik was fired and Ogura was promoted to head coach where he got his coaching duties on 24 August 2013 in a 3–2 lost to Kashiwa Reysol.

Later, Ogura became the assistant coach for Ventforet Kofu (2014–2015)^[3] and JEF United Chiba (2015–2016).^[4] He then served as the sporting director for Yokohama F. Marinos from 2018 to 2022. Later on, Ogura became an assistant manager for Tokyo Verdy under Hiroshi Jofuku, notably being present when Tokyo Verdy got promoted to the J1 League at the end of the 2023 J2 League season.

Singapore

On 1 February 2024, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) announced the appointment of Ogura as the head coach of the Singapore national team.^[1] He became the third consecutive Japanese head coach for the Lions.^[5] On 21 March 2024, in his first match coaching the Lions, Ogura led the team to a 2–2 draw against the China after being down 2–0 in the first half in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification. Ogura was also tasked to lead Singapore with a fresh new squad for the 2024 ASEAN Championship. With star players like Ikhsan Fandi, Ilhan Fandi, Irfan Fandi, Harhys Stewart, Jacoh Mahler, Zulfahmi Arifin and Song Ui-young not selected in the squad. Ogura managed to carried the team to the semi-finals of the tournament.