Tokyo (AFP) – Andres Iniesta’s Japanese group Vissel Kobe have fired supervisor Atsuhiro Miura after a seven-game winless begin to the brand new J-League season.
Vissel introduced Sunday that Miura, who had been in cost since September 2020 and was beforehand the membership’s director of sport, would step down with the group third from backside of the desk.
Vissel have taken solely 4 factors from seven video games regardless of the presence of World Cup-winner Iniesta and his former Barcelona team-mates Bojan Krkic and Sergi Samper.
Miura led Vissel to a third-place end in final season’s J-League and to the semi-finals of the 2020 AFC Champions League however he has did not win a trophy for the big-spending membership.
“I’m upset to be leaving earlier than the group has fulfilled its targets,” Miura stated in an announcement launched by the membership.
“I’ve been concerned within the huge modifications which have taken place at Vissel since 2018 and I’m deeply grateful that I’ve been in a position to combat alongside the membership and its followers.”
Iniesta joined Vissel in 2018 after making greater than 600 appearances for Barcelona, and performed alongside former Spain team-mate David Villa and German World Cup-winner Lukas Podolski in Kobe.
The 37-year-old Iniesta signed a brand new two-year contract extension in Might final 12 months.
Iniesta final week helped Vissel qualify for subsequent month’s group levels of the AFC Champions League with a 4-3 playoff victory over Australia’s Melbourne Victory.
Vissel, who’re owned by tech billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani, one in every of Japan’s richest males, have additionally signed a number of Japan internationals together with striker Yuya Osako in recent times.
