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. It was first promoted to the Japan Soccer League Division 2 in 1986, and remained there until the JSL folded in 1992. 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. (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.

After 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 continue to often win the JFL but elect to stay there to this day) and began play in the top division of Japanese football in 1997. However, due to the inability to secure investors and sponsors in the years following the earthquake, Vissel was unable to develop as hoped. 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.

From 2007 until 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.

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 signed since Michael Laudrup in 1996. Shortly after, in May 2018, Vissel signed another World Cup winner, Andrés Iniesta, from FC Barcelona. In December 2018 Vissel Kobe added former Barcelona striker 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 that season that saw Vissel Kobe 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's history. The furthest Kobe had been in the Emperor's Cup was the semi-finals of 2000 and 2017. This was also Spanish forward David Villa's last professional match as a footballer. Vissel also qualified for the 2020 AFC Champions League for the first time. On 8 February 2020, Vissel beat Yokohama F. Marinos after a 3–3 in 90 minutes. Vissel Kobe eventually won 3-2 on penalties to win their first Japanese Super Cup title and their second national title. On 12 February 2020, Vissel played their first AFC Champions League match against Malaysian league champions, Johor Darul Ta'zim at home winning 5–1, Keijiro Ogawa scoring a hat-trick. The club reached the semi-finals, playing against eventual winners Ulsan Hyundai. Vissel was knocked out by the Korean club losing 2–1 in extra time after conceding an unfortunate, and very debatable 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 Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 3–1 in the quarter-final.

Takayuki Yoshida becomes manager, back-to-back league titles (2022–2025)

On 29 June 2022, Spanish manager Miguel Ángel Lotina was sacked by the club which then saw former player, Takayuki Yoshida promoted to the managerial role.