Andres Iniesta is already making waves in Japan
When Andres Iniesta moved from Barcelona to Vissel Kobe in the J-League, there was widespread sadness from football fans everywhere, apart from those in Japan.
Bringing the curtain down on his magical career at the Camp Nou, Iniesta joined the J-League side after agreeing a deal to set up a number of academies in the country, as well as reportedly finding an Asian distributor for his wine company, Bodega Iniesta, which employs a number of people in his hometown of Fuentealbilla, Spain.
With all of this going on it was sort of forgotten that Iniesta would also be playing actual football in Japan, and – knowing the player that he is – probably playing very good football as well.
Not to insult the J-League, but Iniesta is a man who only last month was starting World Cup matches, so it’s not a stretch to state that he is a step above the rest of the talent in the country.
In a recent match against Jubilo Iwata the Spaniard went one better and showed just how much better he is.
Receiving the ball with his back to goal, Iniesta channeled his inner Denis Bergkamp, took a breath and controlled the ball with his right foot while turning to face the goal.
Face-to-face with Naoki Hatta, he psyches him out, forces him to drop to the ground, before rounding him and sliding the ball into the net.
In summation, it is a moment of pure beauty, and you owe it to yourself to watch this over and over again.
Almost as if Iniesta is far too good to be playing in Japanpic.twitter.com/qjwnzL0wPB
— Sam Dean (@SamJDean) August 11, 2018
