Iniesta’s Fan Club Closes After Just Five Months of Establishing!

Will he retire at the end of this season and return to Barcelona?

On a night in mid-April, Andres Iniesta (38) was among the J1 soccer team “Vissel Kobe” that emerged from the Shinkansen platform at Shinagawa Station. He was traveling with the team for their match against Kashima Antlers the following day. Iniesta was dressed in his official suit, but his expression was somewhat stiff.

I think the closure of the fan club for Japan may have had an effect.

A Vissel Kobe official said, “I think the closure of the fan club for Japan may have had an effect on him. The fan club was established in November 2022 by advertising firm FORCE, which signed a partnership agreement with NSN, a company Iniesta co-founded.

Iniesta’s desire to stay connected with Japanese fans throughout his life.

In order to realize this desire, the fan club was designed as a membership community.

However, the fan club was not a community,

Iniesta said, “We withdrew from the fan club less than half a year after its launch. All the YouTube videos that had been published so far were deleted. The reason for the closure was a discrepancy between FORCE and Iniesta’s agent company, but the majority of Vissel fans are defending Iniesta, saying that it was a Japanese company that tried to make money using Iniesta,” said a Vissel Kobe official.

The team is currently in top position in J1 (as of April 24). However, Iniesta has played only 12 minutes in J1 this season.

In February of this year, the Spanish newspaper El Nacional ran the headline, “Iniesta asked by Barcelona president Joan Laporta to return to the club,” and it was reported that Iniesta would be retiring and that he would be joining FC Barcelona’s coaching staff in the Spanish first division. Iniesta himself has not mentioned when he will retire, but under the circumstances, it is quite possible that he will retire at the end of this season,” said a sports reporter.