Andres Iniesta will now play in the J-League, for Vissel Kobe, a club owned by billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani, who is also the CEO of Rakuten, Barca’s shirt sponsors.
Meanwhile, Iniesta has become the sixth Barcelona player in history to join a club in Japan.
Among the Blaugrana stars who’ve made a move to Japan, the most famous name is that of Michael Laudrup, who after a two-year spell at Real Madrid went to Kobe.
Laudrup played 15 games for the Japanese side and scored five goals, after which he headed to Ajax and retired.
Txiki Beguiristain, current Manchester City Sporting Director, too made a move to Japan after leaving Deportivo La Coruna in 1997.
In frame: Carles Rexach
He played for Urawa Red Diamonds till 1999 and made 61 appearances while scoring 16 goals.
Another member of Johan Cruyff’s ‘Dream Team’, Julio Salinas headed to Japan to play for Yokohama Marinos after two short spells at Deportivo and Sporting.
Salinas was joined by Ion Andoni Goikoetxea in 1998, who did make 23 appearances but couldn’t get on the score sheet ever for the Japanese club.
Cruyff’s assistant Carles Rexach had also left Barcelona in 1998 and accepted an offer to train Yokohama Flügels.
He came back when Louis Van Gaal called him back in 1999 to become a part of Barca’s coaching staff.