VfB Homberg loses Kaito Nakamikawa because he has to leave Germany. There is great incomprehension in Homberg.
VfB Homberg spend the winter in eleventh place in the Oberliga Niederrhein. However, it is only three points away from the first relegation place.
Coach Stefan Janßen’s team needs every player to secure their place in the remaining round. But politics, of all things, is putting a spanner in the works, as VfB have now announced.
Bitter for the Hombergers, even more bitter for Kaito Nakamikawa. Because he had to return to his Japanese homeland and the Hombergers were very disappointed.
The 22-year-old full-back, who was born and raised in the city of Tochigi north of Tokyo, had been living in Düsseldorf since 2021, where he worked as a soccer coach for Japanese children.
In the summer of 2022, he moved from TuS Haltern to Homberg and made 38 out of 40 possible appearances in the Oberliga Niederrhein in 2022/2023, scoring two goals. He has made 15 appearances in the current season.
This number of appearances will remain the same, as Nakamikawa is no longer in Germany and has not been granted a residence permit
Unfortunately, it is probably the case that for years one can only look at German immigration policy with resignation
Wolfgang Graf
Homberg’s head of department Wolfgang Graf regrets: “It is completely incomprehensible to me that Kaito, who has not been a burden on any social security system in the Federal Republic of Germany, has to leave our country. Unfortunately, it is probably the case that for years we have only been able to look with resignation at Germany’s policy towards foreigners. I would like to wish Kaito that he can continue his sporting and private career successfully in Japan.”
A few weeks ago, Homberg’s sporting director Frank Hildebrandt replied as follows when asked by RS about his most bitter moment of the first half of the season: “If there was one shitty game, it was against Ratingen. We lost 3-0 despite being outnumbered for 85 minutes. We didn’t manage to somehow take advantage of being outnumbered. That was a totally bad day.”
His answer would probably be different now…
