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Vissel Kobe
ヴィッセル神戸

Full name	Vissel Kobe
Nickname(s)	Ushi (cows)
Founded	1966; 53 years ago (1966)[1]
Ground	Noevir Stadium Kobe Hyōgo-ku, Kōbe, Hyōgo
Capacity	30,134
Owner	Rakuten
Chairman	Katsuhiro Shimizu
Manager	Juan Manuel Lillo
League	J1 League
2018	J1 League, 10th
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours Third colours
Current season

1995–04 crest

first home colours, used from 1995–04

Home's Stadium Kobe

Vissel Kobe (ヴィッセル神戸, Visseru Kōbe) is a Japanese professional football club, currently playing in the J1 League. The team is located in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture. The home stadium is Kobe Wing Stadium, in Hyōgo-ku, though some home matches are played at Kobe Universiade Memorial Stadium in Suma-ku.

History

The club was founded in 1966 as the semi-professional Kawasaki Steel Soccer Club in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture.^[2] It was first promoted to the Japan Soccer League Division 2 in 1986, and stayed there until the JSL folded in 1992.^[2]

In 1995, the city of Kobe reached an agreement with Kawasaki Steel, the parent company, to move the club to Kobe and compete for a spot in the professional J.League as Vissel Kobe. Vissel is a combination of the words "victory" and "vessel", in recognition of Kobe's history as a port city.^[2] (Owing to its importance to the city of Kobe, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, parent company of former team patron Kawasaki Steel, remains a Vissel Kobe sponsor. Kawasaki Steel was eventually sold off to become part of JFE Holdings.)

Vissel Kobe began play in 1995 in the Japan Football League, a league below J.League, and the supermarket chain Daiei was slated as the club's primary investor. However, the economic downturn following the Great Hanshin earthquake forced Daiei to pull out and the city of Kobe became responsible for operating the club.

Despite finishing 2nd in the JFL in 1996, Vissel was promoted to the J.League (the champions, Honda FC, refused to abandon their corporate ownership and become a professional club) and began play in the top division of Japanese football in 1997. However, due to mismanagement, including the inability to secure investors and sponsors, Vissel has never been a contender for the league title. In December, 2003, mounting financial losses forced the club to file for bankruptcy protection.

In January, 2004, Vissel was sold to Crimson Group, parent company of online merchant Rakuten, whose president is Kobe native Hiroshi Mikitani. So far, Mikitani's attempts to strengthen the team have met little success. Vissel's first signing under the Mikitani regime, İlhan Mansız, who was acquired partly to capitalize on his popularity during the 2002 FIFA World Cup hosted in Korea and Japan, was a massive failure – the Turkish forward played just three matches before leaving the team because of a knee injury. Mikitani also alienated supporters by changing the team uniform colors from black and white stripes to crimson, after his Crimson Group and the color of his alma mater, Harvard Business School. (The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, a baseball team also owned by Rakuten but based in Sendai, wear the same colors.)

Vissel finished 11th in the league in 2004, the same position as the previous year, and finished 18th and last place in 2005, resulting in automatic relegation from J.League Division 1, or J1, to J2. During the two-year span, Vissel had five different head coaches. 2006 was Vissel's first season in J2 after nine years in the top division of soccer in Japan. They finished 3rd in the 2006 season and were promoted to J1 after beating Avispa Fukuoka in the promotion/relegation play-offs.

During the period of 2007 to 2011 Vissel finished in the bottom half of the table each year. In 2012 they finished 16th, third from last, and were again relegated to J2.

In 2013, Vissel finished in second place, 4 points behind Gamba Osaka, which secured their return to J1 for the 2014 season.

On 6 December 2014, Rakuten Inc. bought the team from the Crimson Group.^[3]

In May 2018, Vissel signed 2010 FIFA World Cup winner Andrés Iniesta from FC Barcelona.^[4]

Record as J.League member

Key

• Tms. = Number of teams


• Pos. = Position in league


• Attendance/G = Average league attendance

League history

• Chugoku Soccer League: 1978–85 (as Kawasaki Steel Mizushima)


• Division 2 (Japan Soccer League Div. 2): 1986–91 (Kawasaki Steel Mizushima until 1987; Kawasaki Steel afterwards)


• Division 3 (Old JFL Div. 2): 1992–93 (as Kawasaki Steel)


• Division 2 (Old JFL): 1994–96 (Kawasaki Steel 1994; Vissel Kobe since 1995)


• Division 1 (J.League): 1997–05


• Division 2 (J.League Division 2): 2006


• Division 1 (J.League Division 1): 2007–12


• Division 2 (J.League Division 2): 2013


• Division 1 (J.League Division 1): 2014–

Total (as of 2014): 16 seasons in the top tier, 11 seasons in the second tier, 2 seasons in the third tier and 8 seasons in the Regional Leagues.

Players

Current squad

As of 7 March 2019.^[5]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Daiya Maekawa 2 DF Daisuke Nasu 3 DF Hirofumi Watanabe 5 MF Hotaru Yamaguchi 6 MF Sergi Samper 7 FW David Villa 8 MF Andrés Iniesta 10 FW Lukas Podolski (Captain) 13 FW Keijiro Ogawa 14 MF Hirotaka Mita 15 DF Daiki Miya 16 FW Kyogo Furuhashi 17 FW Wellington 18 GK Kim Seung-gyu 19 DF Ryo Hatsuse 20 MF Asahi Masuyama

No. Position Player 21 FW Junya Tanaka 22 DF Daigo Nishi 24 MF Masatoshi Mihara 25 DF Leo Osaki 27 MF Yuta Goke 28 GK Kenshin Yoshimaru 29 GK Kota Ogi 30 GK Genta Ito 31 MF Yuya Nakasaka 32 DF Wataru Hashimoto 33 DF Dankler 34 DF So Fujitani 35 MF Takuya Yasui 40 DF Yuki Kobayashi FW Yutaro Oda (Type 2 Player) MF Kakeru Yamauchi (Type 2 Player)

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player MF Tatsuki Noda (at Kataller Toyama) FW Daiju Sasaki (at Palmeiras)

No. Position Player FW Akito Mukai (at FC Imabari)

Managers

Manager	Nat.	Tenure
Stuart Baxter	Scotland	1997
Hiroshi Kato	Japan	1997
Benito Floro	Spain	1998
Harumi Kori	Japan	1998
Ryoichi Kawakatsu	Japan	1999–02
Hiroshi Matsuda	Japan	Jan 2002 – Dec 02
Hiroshi Soejima	Japan	2003
Ivan Hašek	Czech Republic	Jan 2003 – Dec 04
Hiroshi Kato	Japan	2004
Hideki Matsunaga	Japan	Jan 2005 – April 5
Émerson Leão	Brazil	May 2005 – June 5
Pavel Řehák	Czech Republic	2005
Stuart Baxter	Scotland	Jan 2006 – Dec 06
Hiroshi Matsuda	Japan	Jan 2007 – Dec 08
Caio Júnior	Brazil	Dec 2008 – June 9
Masahiro Wada (interim)	Japan	July 2009 – Aug 09
Toshiya Miura	Japan	Aug 2009 – Sept 10
Masahiro Wada	Japan	Sept 2010 – April 12
Ryo Adachi (interim)	Japan	April 2012 – May 12
Akira Nishino	Japan	May 22, 2012 – Nov 8, 2012
Ryo Adachi (interim)	Japan	Nov 9, 2012 – Dec 31, 2012
Ryo Adachi	Japan	Jan 1, 2013 – Dec 11, 2014
Nelsinho Baptista	Brazil	Dec 12, 2014 – Aug 16, 2017
Takayuki Yoshida	Japan	Aug 16, 2017 – Sep 16, 2018
Kentaro Hayashi (interim)	Japan	Sep 17, 2017 – Oct 4, 2018
Juan Manuel Lillo	Spain	Oct 5, 2018 –

Affiliated clubs

• 
  Chonburi^[6]
  

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vissel Kobe.

• Vissel Kobe Official Web Site