Andres Iniesta is one of the greatest players in history. A four-time Champions League winner,
who scored the winning goal in the 2010 World Cup final, and is arguably the best player never to
win the Ballon d’Or.
But when Iniesta left Barcelona in the summer of 2018, he was 34 years old and people might have
thought he was headed for retirement.
But no. In fact, he was nowhere near finished with football. Not only has he been playing ever
since. But he’s actually still playing now, nearly six years later and approaching 40.
So, this is what Andres Iniesta did next.
Iniesta went out a league title winner in Spain,
winning his ninth and final LaLiga championship in 2018.
He actually announced his departed in April of that year, in a tearful press conference
in which he promised that he would never play against Barcelona. To make good on that pledge,
he needed to leave Europe and so the next chapter of his career began in Japan.
A little over a month later, in a downtown hotel in Tokyo,
Iniesta was unveiled as a Vissel Kobe player, a club from central Japan.
It made sense. The club’s owner, Hiroshi Mikitani,
was also the CEO of online retailer Rakutin, Barcelona’s then-shirt sponsor.
“For me this is a very special day,” Iniesta said. “My family is excited to
come to Japan and we are very pleased. There were many offers. But I decided
to sign with Vissel Kobe because the project presented to me was impressive.”
The project in question was to turn the club into one of Asia’s biggest. A tall order for
a club which had never finished higher than 7th in Japan’s J.League, let alone won it.
Nevertheless, when Iniesta was presented to the fans it felt like a needle-moving moment.
8,000 people turned up to Noevir Stadium, with a message displayed on the scoreboard reading:
“Bienvenido… a magician is coming to Kobe”
A magician, and perhaps a catalyst?
"With the arrival of Iniesta, we undoubtedly improve the level of the Japanese league,
and also the popularity of football among children and adolescents,” Mikitani said at the time.
The Spaniard was certainly popular. Especially in his first few seasons. Right at the beginning of
Iniesta time in Japan, FC Tokyo sold out their stadium in anticipation of facing him and Kobe.
He was unavailable, though, and – instead – Tokyo hired an Iniesta impersonator for the occasion.
Iniesta also took – and continues to take - his mentor role seriously. His Academy
operates from four different venues in Kobe itself, has its own Japanese-language website,
and is the kind of legacy-building tool which, in few generations, may show a very real affect.
Legacy is important, because Iniesta did not arrive in Japan in his prime and so his impact
was never likely to be limited to the pitch. His time in Japanese football lasted six seasons and
Kobe’s form fluctuated dramatically, finishing 10th, 8th, 14th, 3rd and 13th in the J.League.
Contributing was a rotating cast of coaches; Iniesta worked under four in five years.
In 2019, however Kobe did win the Emperor’s Cup – Japan’s premier
knockout competition – for the first time in their history. Iniesta started in midfield and
captained a side that included former German international Lukas Podolski,
and one-time Barcelona defender Thomas Vermaelen. Iniesta’s former Spain and Barcelona teammate
David Villa also appeared during the 2-0 win over Kashima Antlers, as a late substitute.
It was the biggest moment in the club’s history, their first major honour,
and it also granted them access to the Asia Champions League,
which was a step towards the ambition of becoming a continental power.
Even in his mid-to-late 30s, Iniesta was still a fine player. Accordingly,
highlights from his time with Kobe would occasionally appear on social media. A superb
curling shot against Nagoya Grampus in 2019. An amazing dribble around the Jubilo Iwata goalkeeper
in 2018. And a brilliant one-two and finish against Vegalta Sendai during the same season.
As ever, his play with decorated with many of the familiar bits of skill from his Barcelona days,
even if his speed gradually began to wane. As he got older, injuries – quite
understandably – became more common. Among other muscle problems – seven in four a half
years – a serious hamstrung kept him out for almost five months during the 2021 season.
So, how to view his time? According to the Guardian’s John Duerden, it was mixed.
“Neither party got quite what they wanted out of the arrangement. Iniesta started
well but then faded and Kobe are still far from being Asia’s biggest club,
but there was plenty to enjoy along the way.”
In May 2023, there was another tearful press-conference. By his sixth season,
he had become a peripheral presence, rarely seeing the pitch. Ironically so,
because that 2023 season would end with Kobe winning the J.League for
the first time. By the time they did, he was long gone.
"I always thought I would retire here,” Iniesta said to the Japanese media. “For
the past few months I've trained hard with the intention of contributing to the team,
but I started to feel that the coach had different priorities."
He said that the decision to leave Kobe was among “the hardest of his
career” but that "I want to keep playing and then retire while I'm still active.
That's difficult for me to do here, so I want to find a place where I can."
In August 2023, four months after his 39th birthday, he found that place:
Despite apparent interest from Inter Miami, were former teammates Jordi Alba,
Sergio Busquets and Lionel Messi were playing, Iniesta chose instead to join Emirates Club,
in UAE, where another former Barcelona player, Paco Alcacer, was playing.
Within two weeks, he was scoring goals too – a stoppage time penalty in a 4-4 draw with Azman.
So, Iniesta is still going. He will turn 40 in May of 2024,
but that is not necessarily an end date either.
One of the most watchable players of his, or any other generation, has the option to extend
his contract until 2025, which may yet see him carry on into something approaching middle age.