Andrés Iniesta’s arrival was part of ambition to mirror Spanish giants’ success but relegation from the J League threatensLast August FC Tokyo were so disappointed that Andrés Iniesta was going to be absent from Vissel Kobe’s visit they hired an impersonator of the Spanish midfielder to entertain the rare sell-out crowd of almost 50,000. Unfortunately Kobe’s impression of
Barcelona has been equally dodgy and the club that was supposed to be winning the Japanese title this year and challenging for the Asian crown in 2020 is two points above the relegation zone with a third of the J League season remaining.
The so-called and much-vaunted ‘Barcafication’ of Kobe has been a failure. In 2014 the Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten bought the club that had never finished higher than ninth in the top tier. Two years later and the company was sponsoring Barcelona, marking the start of what was supposed to be a beautiful relationship between Kansai and Catalonia.