Dortmund’s ‘lost son’ Shinji Kagawa has returned home after an unsuccessful two seasons of bench warming at Manchester United, but will they regret selling him back to the Germans?
The first Japanese player to play for United, originally signed by Sir Alex Ferguson, struggled at his new club since his arrival. He came with a lot of promise after helping Dortmund to winning two Bundesliga titles in 2011 and 2012 and the high expectations where not lived up to. Sir Alex was in his last season as United manager and used the midfielder sparingly, choosing to focus more on his desire to win the title in his last season as manager than help blood the talented Asian youngster into the team.
When given a chance however, the Japanese star did well and earned himself the records of first ever Asian to score a Premiership hat-trick and the first Japanese player to win a Premiership title. He scored six times in total for United and put in his fair share of assists as well. It was no secret that the boy came with bags of talent and it was obvious to see every time he did get to play, and his former manager Jurgen Klopp had rated him highly.
It wasn’t to be for him in his first season and it was even worse for him under David Moyes who also found himself having to focus more on getting results than taking time to integrate any young promising future stars into the team.
It was hard for the Scotsman to try and do any sort of re-building at United, having been thrown in at the deep end as the ‘chosen one’ he wanted to hit the ground running and make a good impression. So Kagawa was put on the back burner yet again and made even fewer appearances under Moyes than he had done under Ferguson.
Since returning to Dortmund the player has received a hero’s welcome from the fans and repaid them as early as his first match by providing them with an assist and a goal. First he set up Kevin Grosskreutz, whose cut back found Adrian Ramos for the lead, then the attacking midfielder fired in from 12 metres in the 41st minute as hundreds of Japanese flags were unfurled in the stands. His manager spoke after that game, a long term admirer of the talented Kagawa who was surprised to have had the chance to re-sign him from United in the first place. He said: “Shinji played an outstanding game and he had cramps at the end which is a good sign, we know very well that he can play football and also create a special atmosphere”
The Dortmund fans absolutely adore him and with the sort of faith that his manager shows in him he has been given the chance to truly flourish. He will have a fantastic season at the German club and no doubt play a very big part in their push for a league title and their chase of European glory as well.
Man United will definitely regret selling him, as if he had been given the chance he needed when he was there then he would no doubt have shown what he was capable of doing and become a big part of the setup at Old Trafford. Moyes should have given the player a chance, it’s not as if his team were playing very well last season anyway and he might have added that magic that they were lacking and helped them win a few more games. You cannot blame Fergie for not using the player as much in his last season in charge, but Moyes would have benefited greatly from using him, as would new United manager Louis Van Gaal who decided to ship him back to where he came from in favour of his new super star summer signings.
If he had stayed, even after all the players they have recruited he would still have made a big impact over there this season. United’s loss is Dortmund’s gain by a mile and it is a shame for English football to lose such a promising star. At least Man Utd won’t have to worry about him scoring against them in Europe this season.
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