Andres Iniesta's Japan journey approaches end with farcical farewell

Andres Iniesta is not retiring.

It’s a fact that seemed to have been lost somewhere under the rain-drenched lights at Japan’s National Stadium on Tuesday night, where the Spanish legend’s Vissel Kobe faced his former club, reigning La Liga champion Barcelona, in a hastily arranged friendly intended to give the 39-year-old one last chance to play in front of a Tokyo crowd.

A combination of injuries and club-excused absences may have kept the 2010 World Cup champion out of 14 Kanto-area games over his five years in Japan, plus two this season in which he simply didn’t come off the bench.

But Tuesday, it would seem, mattered more — especially to fans who paid between ¥600,000 and ¥5 million (nearly $36,000) for VIP packages that included a meet-and-greet session with Iniesta, with those on the “Platinum VVIP” end of the scale also getting to attend Barcelona’s welcome gala and abbreviated practice session.

As for what mattered less, one needs to only look northwest to AC Nagano Parceiro, the third-division side that was scheduled to face Vissel in the second round of the Emperor’s Cup on Wednesday. That game has been moved to June 14 after the Japan Football Association and the J. League gave their blessing to Barcelona’s visit, much to the dismay of Kobe’s own supporters.

“We ask that (Vissel) take care to create a comfortable environment for its Emperor’s Cup opponent as a result of this scheduling change,” Supporters Union Kobe, an alliance of Vissel fan groups, wrote in a May 12 statement.

“Additionally, it’s important that the club contribute to the soccer community’s development as a whole, and we want (Vissel) to respect the standing of the Emperor’s Cup and work with other clubs to develop the competition in a healthy way.”

The contents of Tuesday’s friendly — a 2-0 Barca win, mirroring the result of the two sides’ 2019 friendly in Kobe — have already faded into irrelevance, just as one would expect from a matchup between Vissel's backup players a Barcelona squad that played its La Liga finale late Sunday night before hopping directly onto a Tokyo-bound charter flight.

Instead, the 47,355 fans at Kokuritsu, who paid between ¥8,000 and ¥40,000 for their non-VIP tickets, were left with the memories of a fading star enjoying a kickabout among the vague trappings of a testimonial — even though he’s simply elected to leave mid-season, rather than at the end of his contract in December, in search of a team that will give him more playing time.

“I wanted this to be a farewell to Japanese fans, and a way for me to show my respect and repay them,” Iniesta said after the match. “I don’t know what I was able to leave (in Japan), but what I wanted to bring was my passion and respect. And I hope my love and respect for our fans has shown.”

The player himself isn’t necessarily to blame — completely, at least — for the mawkish spectacle surrounding him, which will only intensify ahead of his scheduled final game for Vissel on July 1.

Though Iniesta’s form in Japan has rarely approached that which embodied the height of his career, he has always demonstrated a solid understanding of his assignment. Since arriving in the summer of 2018, he has been a passionate ambassador for both Vissel and the J. League, with the exposure he has generated for Japanese soccer blunted only by the unprecedented impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Iniesta has also eagerly stepped into a mentorship role for the club’s younger players, best embodied by his relationship with striker Kyogo Furuhashi — who has since gone on to become a star at Celtic and was named Scotland’s Player of the Year after helping the club earn its historic eighth domestic treble this season.

“I’ve been able to watch him since he joined Vissel, and seen the ideas he brought to the attack in training,” Kobe manager Takayuki Yoshida said Tuesday night. “Of course the players weren’t able to replicate that style, but Iniesta brought a lot of great technique, and he was always professional.

“Last year we had a difficult season and even though he was injured, he kept the team united as captain and I’m grateful for the work he did.”

But for all the good Iniesta has done for Vissel and the J. League both on and off the pitch, the stench of crass commercialism has lingered throughout his tenure.

The flood of merchandise commemorating his departure — including a ¥400,000 framed set of two replica shirts — is as much a testament to the constant efforts of Vissel’s marketing department as it is to Iniesta’s contributions to the club.

After all, were fans at either of his first two appearances this season to have opened a box of the “I went to see Iniesta” souvenir cookies on offer at Noevir Stadium — and consumed one cookie for every minute he stood on the pitch — they would have still had leftovers to enjoy on the train home.

While the constant stream of Iniesta-emblazoned merch has helped Vissel post club-record profits in recent seasons, not every initiative involving the Spaniard has succeeded. Plans to crowdfund a life-size Iniesta statue outside Noevir were quickly shelved in January 2022 after fans criticized the stunt, while his members-only fan club folded after just six months due to friction between the service provider and his management agency.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment has been Vissel itself. Despite owner and Rakuten founder Hiroshi Mikitani’s intent to transform the club into Japan’s own Barcelona-esque superclub, the team managed just one top-three finish over the last six seasons, flirting with the relegation zone as often as it did with first place.

Though Iniesta was at one point joined by fellow Spaniard David Villa and ex-Germany star Lukas Podolski, the best Kobe managed with three World Cup winners in the squad was a single Emperor’s Cup title as well as the 2020 Super Cup — both under German Thorsten Fink, one of eight men to manage the team since 2015.

Ironically it’s instead been domestic talents such as former Japan internationals Yuya Osako, Yoshinori Muto and Hotaru Yamaguchi — whose Tuesday appearances, if any, were short cameos — that have sent Kobe to the top of the J1 table as the season approaches its halfway point.

But Japan loves its stars and treasures its reputation of treating celebrity players well — which explains in part how the Iniesta narrative has been elevated to the level of other past foreign greats such as Kashima Antlers pioneer Zico and FC Tokyo legend Amaral, who arguably did far more to contribute to their clubs’ professionalization than the Spaniard has in Kobe.

That’s not to say Iniesta will leave Japan without a positive legacy. Indeed, he drew millions of eyes to the J. League at a time when the competition was finally beginning to recognize its potential to create a product that could resonate globally.

But it’s a shame that one of his final appearances in the country will have been in Tuesday’s cynical affair, which was unbefitting of everything that should be celebrated during the J. League’s 30th-anniversary season — and of his own legacy as one of the best midfielders the game has ever seen.