Spanish player Andres Iniesta will leave Vissel Kobe mid-season, but at 39 he still postpones the decision on his future. The former 2010 world champion with the Spanish national team has a contract until the end of the year with the Japanese team, currently at the top of the table, but has decided to terminate his contract by mutual consent after playing just 38 minutes in the current season - initially due to an injury, and in the face of a performance of the team that has been gradually improving, until you reach the top of the ranking.
Iniesta arrived at Kobe in 2018 after nine years at Barcelona, with whom he had won four Champions League titles and nine Spanish league titles. With Vissel he had signed a three-year contract valued at $ 30 million, then extended by one year in May 2021. In Kobe he won the Emperor Cup in 2019 and reached the semi-finals of the Asian Champions League the following year. On the domestic front, however, the team controlled by billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani - owner of the online commerce site Rakuten, fell short of expectations, barely managing to save themselves from relegation last season.
Visibly emotional during the conference, Iniesta admitted that he had changed his mind about his hypothetical retirement from playing football - which was initially supposed to take place in Japan, and that he wanted to consider other options once the experience in Kobe was over. His last game with Vissel will be the one played at home against Consadole Sapporo on the first of July.
