Iniesta, before his most complicated challenge in Japan

After finishing last season in third position and qualifying for the AFC Champions League for the second time, Vissel Kobe started a new course with the hope of making history. However, the Japanese team is having a disastrous start to the campaign, which has led to three coaches sitting on their bench. The first was Atsuhiro Miura, who led Vissel Kobe to the Champions League semifinals in 2020. Despite qualifying the team for the great continental tournament again, the Japanese was replaced after not achieving any wins in the first seven days of the J -League. His position was held temporarily by the Spaniard Lluís Planagumà, who gave way to the signing of miguel angel lotina. The Basque debuted against his former team, Cerezo Osaka, but could not get a positive result either (0-1). “It will help us to improve in the future,” Lotina said after the match.

A future in which he expects nothing more and nothing less than the Asian Champions League. Vissel Kobe, led by Andrés Iniesta, traveled to Thailand to play four games in just 14 days -there were six, but the Chinese team Shanghai Port withdrew from the competition due to Covid-. Kobe will play the tournament with the responsibility of representing your country at a continental level, but also with the aim of returning to the path of victory and that the dynamic is reflected later in the league. “We have to change the mentality and use the Champions League to change the trend. We will work together to achieve it”, assured Iniesta after losing to Cerezo Osaka. The Spanish midfielder is facing one of the great challenges of his career as a footballer: he has never fought to avoid relegation, much less with a team called to compete for much more ambitious goals.

Iniesta is involved in a situation hitherto unprecedented in his career as a footballer. Spanish midfielder has played a pivotal role in all of Vissel Kobe’s greatest successes -in 2019 he won the Emperor’s Cup and in 2020 the Super Cup, to which must be added some Champions League semifinals- and he will do everything on his part not to also record his name in a descent. He extended his contract with the Japanese club until December 2023 and in the worst case he could end his career playing in Second. “He is 37 years old and takes care of himself more than an 18-year-old player. He invests in his health, in his daily physical preparation, and on a mental level, he is impressive. He is here in Japan after having won the Champions League or a World Cup and when he plays a pre-season friendly and Marca celebrates it. You have to constantly admire him,” said Bojan in AS del de Fuentealbilla. With him on the team, Vissel Kobe fans can only be optimistic.