Express. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express.
Man Utd's Shinji Kagawa staying put despite Atletico Madrid interest and Dortmund campaign
SHINJI KAGAWA'S agent has confirmed that his client will be staying at Manchester United despite interest from Atletico Madrid and a campaign by Borussia Dortmund fans to 'free' the midfielder.
Dortmund were linked with a move to bring Kagawa back to Germany earlier in the summer, while Atletico have also emerged as holding an interest in the Japanese international.
Dortmund fans yesterday took to Twitter in a bid to bring Kagawa back to the club where he starred before joining United last summer.
The campaign adopted the hashtag #FreeShinji which trended in Germany for much of yesterday morning.
However, Kagawa's agent Thomas Kroth has now moved to downplay speculation of a move away from Old Trafford for his client this summer.
Kroth said: “Shinji will currently not be leaving Manchester United. He wants to fight for his place.
“Because of the Confederations Cup, he did not have a full pre-season and therefore still has a training deficit. That’s why he, until now, has won hardly any playing time.”
“Atletico made an enquiry, although this was never an issue for Shinji.”
Dortmund earlier confirmed that they had hoped to lure Kagawa back to the Westfalenstadion after losing Mario Goetze to Bayern Munich at the end of last season.
Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc said: "After the departure of Mario Gotze was certain, our first idea was to assess how things stood in the case of Shinji Kagawa.
"Shinji has always said that he would one day return to Dortmund but, after a call, it was clear that neither the player nor Manchester United were interested in an transfer at this time."