Takayuki Nishigaya

Takayuki Nishigaya
西ヶ谷 隆之

Personal information
Full name	Takayuki Nishigaya
Date of birth	(1973-05-12) 12 May 1973
Place of birth	Shizuoka, Shizuoka, Japan
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder, Defender
Team information
Current team	Thailand U23 (head coach)
Youth career
1989–1991	Shimizu Commercial High School
College career
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1992–1995	University of Tsukuba
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1996–1997	Nagoya Grampus Eight	35	(0)
1998	Avispa Fukuoka	25	(0)
1999	Verdy Kawasaki	3	(0)
2000	JEF United Ichihara	0	(0)
2001	Albirex Niigata	37	(0)
Total		100	(0)
Managerial career
2015–2017	Mito HollyHock
2018	SC Sagamihara
2022–2024	Singapore
2024–	Thailand U23
Medal record Nagoya Grampus Eight Runner-up J1 League 1996
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Takayuki Nishigaya (西ヶ谷 隆之, Nishigaya Takayuki, born 12 May 1973) is a Japanese professional manager and former footballer who is the head coach of Thailand U23.

Playing career

Nishigaya was born in Shizuoka on 12 May 1973. After graduating from the University of Tsukuba, he joined J1 League club Nagoya Grampus Eight with teammate Shigeyoshi Mochizuki in 1996. He mostly played as a centre-back during that first season. In 1998, he moved to Avispa Fukuoka. He became a regular player as the left-back of a three back defence. In 1999, he moved to Verdy Kawasaki, where he did not play much. In 2000, he moved to JEF United Ichihara. Here, too, he did not play much. In 2001, he moved to J2 League club Albirex Niigata. There, he played a variety of positions, such as defensive midfielder, centre-back and left-back. He retired at the end of the 2001 season.

Coaching career

After retiring, Nishigaya started his coaching career at his alma mater, the University of Tsukuba, in 2003. In 2004, he signed with Tokyo Verdy. He coached for their youth team until 2009. In 2010, he became a manager for Meiji University.

Nishigaya went on to become assistant coach at Albirex Niigata under Hisashi Kurosaki at 2012, and Mito Hollyhock between 2013 and 2015 under Tetsuji Hashiratani, before being promoted to head coach at the latter, after Hashiratani was sacked. In February 2018, Nishigaya became the head coach of SC Sagamihara before moving on to Matsumoto Yamaga, where he was under-18 head coach, and then becoming first-team assistant under Kei Shibata in 2020.

Singapore

In April 2022, Nishigaya was appointed as the manager of the Singapore national team in a two-year contract. He failed to bring Singapore to qualify for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup after losing to Kyrgyzstan 1–2 and losing to Tajikistan 1–0 despite winning against Myanmar 6–2 in third round of 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification. Nishigaya also led the team to a disappointing AFF Cup run, despite a narrow win against Laos and Myanmar, a scoreless draw with Vietnam, the Lions failed to qualify to the semi-finals after a heavy 4–1 humiliation against Malaysia. Despite calls for him to be replaced, he has continued as head coach.

In June 2023, Nishigaya only managed to get two draw results in the friendly matches against Oceania countries, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Island.

Nishigaya narrowly led Singapore to a 3–1 win on aggregate against Guam in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification first round. Nishigaya led Singapore with a disastrous results in the first two matches of the second round of the World Cup qualifiers. As Singapore lost 5–0 to South Korea away and lost 3–1 to Thailand in home ground. On 29 January 2024, Nishigaya was sacked from his duty as Singapore head coach.

Club statistics

Club performance			League		Cup		League Cup		Total
Season	Club	League	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Japan			League		Emperor's Cup		J.League Cup		Total
1996	Nagoya Grampus Eight	J1 League	13	0	1	0	7	0	21	0
1997			22	0	1	0	7	0	30	0
1998	Avispa Fukuoka	J1 League	25	0	3	1	3	1	31	2
1999	Verdy Kawasaki	J1 League	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
2000	JEF United Ichihara	J1 League	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	0
2001	Albirex Niigata	J2 League	37	0	0	0	2	0	39	0
Total			100	0	21	1	5	1	126	2

Managerial statistics

Team	From	To	Record
			G	W	D	L	Win %
Mito HollyHock	27 June 2015	31 January 2018	114	33	42	39	028.95
SC Sagamihara	1 February 2018	31 January 2019	32	12	6	14	037.50
Singapore	25 April 2022	29 January 2024	21	8	5	8	038.10
Thailand U23	4 September 2024	Present	0	0	0	0	!—
Total			167	53	53	61	031.74

External links

• Player statistics at J.League (archive) (in Japanese)
• Manager statistics manager profile at J.League (archive) (in Japanese)