Former Barcelona player Andrés Iniesta signs with J.League side Vissel Kobe.getty images
Andrés Iniesta said that he dismissed offers from elsewhere to join J.League side Vissel Kobe because the club showed it had "trust and confidence" in him, according to the BBC. The 34-year-old completed his move to the Japanese side after leaving Barça, where he spent 22 years. He reportedly signed a "three-year deal with an annual salary of $30 million." Iniesta: "I had a lot of offers, other clubs showed an interest in me. I chose Vissel Kobe because it was an interesting project." Kobe Owner Hiroshi Mikitani said that Iniesta can "help the next generation of players." He said, "I am confident Iniesta's philosophy, leadership and DNA will be a terrific inspiration, not only for Kobe but Japanese football society" (BBC, 5/24). The AP reported Iniesta said, "For me, this is a very special day. This is an important challenge for me. My family is excited to come to Japan and we are very pleased." Mikitani is also CEO of Barcelona sponsor Rakuten, a Japanese online retailer (AP, 5/24).
J.LEAGUE BOOST: ESPN.com's John Duerden wrote the J.League had "lost a little of its lustre in recent years." The level of imports, both coaching staff and players, has dropped compared to the early mid-'90s. There was a "feeling of staleness," that the league had "plateaued," along with the attendance figures. The fact that, at the start of the decade, Chinese teams "started buying famous stars" to make the Chinese Super League the "most-talked about and popular in Asia went down badly in Tokyo." Kobe may want to become "the best team on the continent," but league officials are "keen to have a club able to help the competition back to its former status." Money was "always going to be needed in order to do so and it is increasingly there." Rakuten's "bankrolling" of Vissel Kobe is one example and Mikitani, the seventh-richest man in Japan with a reported net worth of $4.5B, is not just the chair of the club but the founder of the company (ESPN.com, 5/24).
