{"id":484486,"date":"2026-06-18T23:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T23:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/484486\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T23:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T23:38:10","slug":"auckland-fc-coach-steve-corica-departs-after-title-winning-season-for-japan-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/484486\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland FC coach Steve Corica departs after title-winning season for Japan job"},"content":{"rendered":"

Auckland FC coach Steve Corica is walking away from the club less than a month after leading them to an A-League Championship title<\/a> in just their second season, to take up a job in Japan.<\/p>\n

Auckland FC co-owner Anna Mowbray thanked Corica on her Linkedin page, revealing that the Australian coach is heading to Yokohama F. Marinos, one of the most successful clubs in Japan’s top flight league.<\/p>\n

“Today is a proud day and a hard one,” Mowbray wrote.<\/p>\n

“At Auckland FC, Steve built a winning culture, earned the respect of every player, and delivered the Premiership and the A-League Championship – in just two seasons.”<\/p>\n

“Steve had already built an exceptional football career. Grand final wins as a player with Marconi and Sydney FC, over 100 appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers, and seasons in Japan and England. The J1 League is his next logical chapter.”<\/p>\n

Corica delivered the 2024\/2025 Premiership and the ultimate prize this year when Auckland FC beat Sydney FC 1-0 in the final in front of a record home crowd.<\/p>\n

Corica became the club’s first ever head coach when he joined in January 2024. Majority owner Bill Foley said they wanted to recruit an experienced coach, who knew how to win trophies.<\/p>\n

\"Auckland<\/p>\n

Auckland celebrate winning the A-League final.<\/p>\n

Shane Wenzlick \/ Photosport.nz<\/p>\n

“Right from the start, we wanted to set Auckland FC up with the best coach in the A-League and Steve was the obvious candidate. He had won it as a player and as a coach at Sydney FC,” Foley said.<\/p>\n

“He was also committed to launching the club into the community, building a team that would be competitive from the start and creating pathways for talented young players.<\/p>\n

“We wish Steve all the best in his new role and he is always welcome back at the Black Knights.”<\/p>\n

Mowbray said Corica had set a formidable precedent. “Steve, you’ve left big boots to fill. The game’s better for having you in it.”<\/p>\n

Mowbray said Auckland FC remained as ambitious as ever and will recruit a coach to reflect its ‘Always Advance, Never Retreat’ philosophy, with a focus on attacking football.<\/p>\n

Corica thanked the fans and the people of Auckland for their support.<\/p>\n

“It has been a fantastic two years with a city, a fan group and a team that have all been way beyond my expectations,” Corica said.<\/p>\n

‘I didn’t know quite what I was getting into when I joined two years ago but what an experience it has been. We started with nothing. Then year one we’re Premiers, winning the first piece of A-League silverware for any Kiwi club, and then year two we’re riding a bus down the middle of Queen Street parading the Championship Trophy.<\/p>\n

“It has been an incredible journey. Right from the very beginning, from game one, the city came out to support us. I’ll remember that and be forever grateful.”<\/p>\n

Auckland FC CEO, Nick Becker believes the fans will always have a special place in their heart for Corica.<\/p>\n

“Steve embedded himself into Auckland and will always be remembered as the coach who delivered silverware in the club’s first two seasons. He has laid the foundations for future success and set the benchmark for Auckland FC,” Becker said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Auckland FC coach Steve Corica is walking away from the club less than a month after leading them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-484486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}