Soma Transfer Update

While all eyes are on Nadeshiko Japan's big match against Sweden in the FIFA 2011 Women's World Cup, another Japanese soccer story taking place in Germany all but nearly slipped under the radar. Earlier this year we wrote about the former Urawa Reds defender Takahito Soma's transfer announcement from the Bundesliga 2 Energie Cottbus to an undisclosed franchise in the MLS. This would make his the 2nd Issei player in the MLS alongside Kosuke Kimura of the Colorado Rapids As of this month it has now been confirmed on Goal.com that this deal will not go through. Instead, Takahito Soma will return to the J-League to play for Vissel Kobe. This is understandable given Soma had requested to leave his German team for family reasons. Given our great enthusiasm for the potential move we are a little dissappointed but shigata na gai. Family is important and we more than understand this. We wish Soma-San well and hope that he one day considers another run to the United States to play in the MLS. We love J-League players here in the United States and hope we shall soon see more of them in the ever growing MLS.