Guido Buchwald has no regrets about choosing club over country and says his desire to make Urawa Reds Japan's top club was the deciding factor in turning down a job with Germany at next year's World Cup finals.
The 44-year-old former World Cup winner guided Japan's most passionately supported team to their first-ever league success in his first season as a manager and a burning desire to "take the Reds forward" took priority over a desk job in Germany.
Buchwald was offered a position as director of sports by the German football federation but instead opted to sign a new one-year deal with the Reds earlier this week.
"It was difficult to decide for me to stay here or go back to Germany because I had a very good offer from the German federation. But I have decided to go forward with the Reds," said Buchwald.