Hannover 96 and Cerezo Osaka announced that the both sides have reached an agreement on the transfer of Hotaru Yamaguchi from the former to the latter. The details including the transfer fee, which is rumored to be more than €1m, are undisclosed.

Yamaguchi moved to Germany in December last year. The former Cerezo Osaka captain earned 6 appearances in the Bundesliga, but got injured in the World Cup qualifier against Syria last March, and since then he has worked on recovery in Japan.

In the official release from Cerezo Osaka, Yamaguchi explains the main reason for this decision is that he “strongly felt Cerezo is my home after leaving Cerezo to play in Germany.” Also, on Hannover’s official website, he says that he now wants to go back closer to his family and his familiar environments, which suggests he might have felt something like homesick.

As I wrote before, even Cerezo supporters have mixed feelings about his early return, and of course he understands it. He knows that he was able to “come back thanks to support from various people,” so he is determined to “start from scratch” and prove himself again, and he makes public his desire to “play for Cerezo as long as possible.”

The player registration window will re-open on 1st of July. Although whether he is already fit for playing is uncertain, at the earliest, his first game would be against Roasso Kumamoto, which will be taken place at Umakana Yokana Stadium for the first time since the Kumamoto earthquake happened in April, on July 3rd.

Source: Cerezo Osaka Official Website, Hannover 96 Official Website