“I have decided to leave the club that I have been with for six years at the end of this season,” the 34-year-old midfielder said in a statement to Kobe fans posted on Vissel’s official website.

“Thank you for your kind support and encouragement over the past six years. I sincerely hope that Vissel Kobe will win the league for the third time in a row and win the AFC Champions League Elite™.”

Yamaguchi joined Kobe in 2019 after two spells with Cerezo Osaka, where he won the J1 League and Emperor’s Cup double in 2017, either side of a half-season stint in Germany with Hannover 96.

He helped Vissel win the Emperor’s Cup at the end of his debut season to qualify for the AFC Champions League™ for the first time, with the club reaching the semi-finals of the 2020 edition.

Yamaguchi then played a key role in Kobe’s first J1 League title-winning campaign, featuring 32 times for Takayuki Yoshida’s team as Vissel topped the standings by seven points from second-placed Yokohama F Marinos.

A knee injury in the second half of the 2024 season limited his involvement when Kobe ground out a second successive league title win while also lifting the Emperor’s Cup to clinch the double for the first time.

Yamaguchi leaves Kobe with the club in a strong position to qualify for the last 16 of the AFC Champions League Elite 2024/25when the tournament resumes in February as Yoshida’s side sit in third place in the 12-team eastern league phase standings with two games remaining.