Takeru Kishimoto has made a permanent switch to Tokushima Vortis, the club he’s currently playing for on loan, Cerezo Osaka confirmed yesterday.

Kishimoto, a Cerezo Osaka Academy product, started his professional career in 2016. After making 44 appearances and scoring 15 goals in his first 2 years, he has been loaned to J2 clubs to gain more experience since the last year based on Cerezo Osaka’s (presumable) policy according to which they allow players who are too good in the J3 League but not enough in the J1 League to play in the J2 League.

After playing 23 games and scoring 4 goals for Tokushima Vortis this year, he sealed a permanent move to Ricardo Rodriguez’s side.

Nothing has been disclosed about the deal, but at least we can guess why it realized. Firstly, his contract with the club might possibly expire at the end of the season. While he has shown he can do well in the J2 League in this 2 years, but he might possibly not still be good enough to get regular position in the first team (or the club might possibly assess him that way). Just sitting on the bench won’t help him grow as a football player. So, this might possibly be good for Kishimoto who definitely wants playing time and Cerezo who definitely prefer getting some amount of money as a transfer fee to letting him go as a free agent.

My groundless guessing aside, I want to wish him the best of luck at his new club.