Vissel Kobe

Beginnings in Chugoku (1966–2003)

The club was founded in 1966 as the semi-professional Kawasaki Steel Soccer Club in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture.^[3] It was first promoted to the Japan Soccer League Division 2 in 1986, and stayed there until the JSL folded in 1992.^[3] As their performance in the old second tier had been in the bottom nine clubs, they were put into the Japan Football League Division 2 (new third tier overall in the Japanese football league system) and stayed there until the tiers were reunited into a single second tier for 1994.

Move to Kansai and professionalism

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.^[3] (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 1994 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 was unable to contend for the league title. In December, 2003, mounting financial losses forced the club to file for bankruptcy protection.

Crimson Group years (2004–2014)

In January 2004, Vissel was sold to Crimson Group, parent company of online merchant Rakuten, whose president is Kobe native Hiroshi Mikitani. 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, but the Turkish forward played just three matches before leaving the team because of a knee injury. At the time of the purchase, Mikitani alienated supporters by changing the team uniform colours from black and white stripes to crimson, after his Crimson Group and the colour of his alma mater, Harvard Business School. The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, a baseball team also owned by Rakuten but based in Sendai and Rakuten Monkeys, a baseball team in Taoyuan, Taiwan, wear the same colours.

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 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 returned 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.^[4]

Rakuten years and first successes (2015–present)

In 2017, Vissel signed 2014 FIFA World Cup winner Lukas Podolski. He was the first prominent international player Vissel had been able to sign since Michael Laudrup in 1996. Shortly after, in May 2018, Vissel signed another World Cup winner, Andrés Iniesta, from FC Barcelona.^[5] In December 2018 Vissel Kobe managed to sign also David Villa from New York City. The Spanish striker scored 13 goals in 28 games. Alongside Sergi Samper and Andrés Iniesta, Villa was the third Spaniard in the team in that season in which they guided Vissel Kobe to win the 2019 Emperor's Cup.

On 1 January 2020, first time finalist Vissel beat Kashima Antlers in the 2019 Emperor's Cup final at the recently opened New National Stadium to win the first title in the club history. The furthest Kobe had been in the Emperor's Cup was the semi-finals of 2000 and 2017.^[6] This was also Spanish forward David Villa's last professional match as a footballer.^[7] Vissel also qualified for the 2020 AFC Champions League for the first time. On 8 February 2020, Vissel beat Yokohama F. Marinos in which the scoreline was 3–3. Vissel Kobe eventually won 3-2 on penalties to win their first Japanese Super Cup title and their second national title ever.^[8] On 12 February 2020, Vissel played their first AFC Champions League match against Malaysian league champions, Johor Darul Ta'zim at home winning them 5–1 in which Keijiro Ogawa scored a hat-trick in the match. The club than managed to have a good run in the competition all the way until the semi-finals facing against eventual winners Korean Ulsan Hyundai however, Vissel was knocked out by the Korean club losing 2–1 in extra time after conceding an unfortunate penalty kick.

In 2021, Vissel achieved an historic third place in the table of the 2021 J1 League season, thus qualifying for the 2022 AFC Champions League yet again in which the club had another good run in the campaign before losing to Korean Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 3–1 in the quarter-finals.

Home ground

Vissel firstly settled at the Kobe Central Football Stadium which was opened in 1970 with a capacity of 13,000 seats. it was built on the site of the former Kobe Keirin Stadium and was the first stadium in Japan that was custom-built with floodlights, allowing any sports related activities to play at night. In 1999, the stadium was demolished to make way to a new stadium with modern features. In 2001, Vissel moved to their new stadium, Noevir Stadium Kobe which seats on the former stadium.^[9] Located in Misaki Park, Kobe, Japan, the stadium has a capacity of 30,132 seats and features a retractable roof, making it one of the most modern football venues in Japan.

Sponsors

More information Period, Kit manufacturer ...

Period	Kit manufacturer	Main sponsors
1994–1998	Adidas	Itoham
1999–2002	Asics	No sponsors
2003		Kawasaki Heavy Industries
2004–2022		Rakuten
2023–present		Rakuten Mobile

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Kit evolution

More information Home kit - 1st ...

Home kit - 1st
1997 - 1998	1999 - 2002	2003 - 2004	2005 - 2006	2007
2008	2009 - 2010	2011	2012	2013
2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
2024	2025	2026 -

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More information Away kit - 2nd ...

Away kit - 2nd
1997 - 1998	1999 - 2001	2002 - 2003	2004	2005 - 2006
2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
2022	2023	2024	2025	2026 -

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First-team squad

As of 24 February 2026.^[12]

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

More information No., Pos. ...

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  JPN Daiya Maekawa 2 MF  JPN Nanasei Iino 3 DF  BRA Matheus Thuler 4 DF  JPN Tetsushi Yamakawa (captain) 5 MF  JPN Yuta Goke 6 MF  JPN Takahiro Ogihara 7 MF  JPN Yosuke Ideguchi 10 FW  JPN Yuya Osako 11 FW  JPN Yoshinori Muto 13 FW  JPN Daiju Sasaki (vice-captain) 14 MF  JPN Takashi Inui 15 DF  BRA Diego 16 DF  BRA Caetano 18 MF  JPN Haruya Ide 21 GK  JPN Shota Arai 23 DF  JPN Rikuto Hirose 24 DF  JPN Gōtoku Sakai (vice-captain) 25 MF  JPN Yuya Kuwasaki 26 FW  BRA Jean Patric 28 MF  JPN Kento Hamasaki 29 FW  JPN Ren Komatsu

No. Pos. Nation Player 30 MF  JPN Kakeru Yamauchi 31 DF  JPN Takuya Iwanami 32 GK  NGA Richard Monday Ubong 33 MF  JPN Rikuto Hashimoto 35 FW  JPN Niina Tominaga 38 MF  JPN Juzo Ura 39 GK  JPN Shioki Takayama 41 DF  JPN Katsuya Nagato 42 DF  JPN Justin Homma 43 DF  JPN Kaito Yamada 44 MF  JPN Mitsuki Hidaka 45 FW  JPN David Aizawa 46 FW  JPN Sota Ito Type 2 51 MF  JPN Taiga Seguchi Type 2 53 FW  JPN Hayato Watanabe Type 2 55 FW  JPN Yuta Miyahara 56 MF  JPN Tafuku Satomi Type 2 57 DF  JPN Ryosuke Irie 58 MF  JPN Sota Onishi Type 2 71 GK  JPN Shūichi Gonda 80 DF  JPN Boniface Nduka

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Out on loan

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

More information No., Pos. ...

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF  JPN Yusei Ozaki (at RB Omiya Ardija) — DF  JPN Haruka Motoyama (at Fagiano Okayama) — DF  JPN Shogo Terasaka (at Zweigen Kanazawa)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  JPN Shuto Adachi (at Thespa Gunma) — FW  JPN Taisei Miyashiro (at UD Las Palmas)

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