Vissel Kobe crowned 2023 J.League champions as “De-Barçafication” enables the realisation of a long-cherished dream

Vissel Kobe have been crowned J.League champions for the 2023 season, a long-awaited first championship for the club that has endured many struggles.

Vissel Kobe, formerly the Kawasaki Steel Soccer Club in Mizushima, was founded in 1994, the year after the start of the J.League season. However, the following year the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake struck. While the club itself was severely damaged, Vissel began its history as a symbol of reconstruction for the people of Kobe.

The team, which included former Japan national team player Akihiro Nagashima and Danish star Michael Laudrup, was promoted to the J.League in 1997. However, they struggled for results after promotion, partly due to financial difficulties caused by the withdrawal of some sponsors. Despite bringing in national-class strikers Kazuyoshi Miura in 2001 and Shoji Jo in 2002, the team was unable to break out of the doldrums.

In 2004, the Crimson Group – headed by local businessman Hiroshi Mikitani, who is also chairman of Rakuten – took control of the club, in the process providing it with some of the league’s best financial resources. However, aggressive reinforcement measures proved unsuccessful, and the following year the club was relegated to the second division. The club returned to J1 in 2007 but fell back to J2 again in 2012.

After a period of stagnation in which they were forced to fight for survival every year and experienced relegation twice, Kobe started to make global headlines in 2017. The club made its first splash with the signing of former Germany international Lukas Podolski, then the following year they also added Andrés Iniesta. The Spain legend’s estimated annual salary was said to be the highest in J.League history at 3.25 billion yen, a gigantic deal that sent shockwaves throughout Japan.

Kobe had tried to emulate Barça by signing Iniesta, Villa and Vermaelen

The following year, in 2019, David Villa and Thomas Vermaelen also joined. While acquiring big names one after the other, Kobe promoted the ‘Barçafication’ of the club. The aim was to play Barcelona-like football based on a possession style, with Iniesta at the heart of the team.

Kobe brought in Juan Manuel Lillo, whom Pep Guardiola looked up to as a mentor, and steadily strengthened the club towards this Barçafication. Lillo left the club in the middle of the following season but was succeeded by Thorsten Fink, who led the team to glory in the Emperor’s Cup, the first title in the club’s history.

Although it was hardly achieved with Barcelona-like football, this was a success nonetheless, and despite subsequent coaching changes and the departure of Villa and Podolski, Kobe continued to pursue a football style of dominating possession and playing close to the opposition goal.

At the same time, they never stopped reinforcing their squad, acquiring Bojan Krkić, Yuya Osako and Yoshinori Muto, who had played in Europe for many years, and other leading players one after another. In 2021, under the leadership of Atsuhiro Miura, the club achieved its highest-ever finish of third place.

In 2022, however, things took a turn for the worse and Vissel slumped significantly. Miura was sacked early on with his team not winning any of their first 11 games of the season, and his successor, Spaniard Miguel Ángel Lotina, also failed to turn things around and was sacked. With Vissel struggling to remain in the top flight, he was replaced by Takayuki Yoshida, who had led the team twice before.

Yoshida opted for a pragmatic approach in the fight for survival. Instead of focusing on ball possession, he found a way to approach the opposition goal more simply based on a strong defence. This worked, and Kobe picked up five consecutive wins in the final stage of the season to ensure they avoided relegation. This season, coach Yoshida continued with the same style.

An emphasis on strength and speed rather than possession-oriented football has allowed Kobe to make the most of physically strong players such as Osako and Muto. Osako scored 22 goals and Muto recorded double figures in both goals and assists, and without the contributions of these two players, Kobe would not have made the breakthrough they did this season. Iniesta, on the other hand, who was creative but could not guarantee the requisite intensity of play, saw his opportunities reduced considerably and was sent to the UAE in August.

In September, Kobe landed Juan Mata for free after his contract with Galatasaray had expired, but significantly, another former Spanish World Cup winner has played only 10 minutes throughout the latter half of the season. The coach kept relying on more direct and physical players rather than creative but ageing foreign legends. 

Although they didn’t reach it in their ideal style, the change of direction under difficult circumstances led Vissel on a path to glory. Kobe’s first victory was ultimately the result of ‘De-Barçafication’.