What happened to Shinji Kagawa?

duffer

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Still only 31, he's just had his contract terminated by a second division Spanish side.

The club (Real Zaragoza) had announced it was "mutually agreed" but Kagawa himself today said " "To be honest, it's not what I wanted. I really regret having to leave unexpectedly".

Obviously he never really set the world on fire at Manchester United but surely he's good enough to find a decent club?


https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20201003/p2g/00m/0sp/066000c
 

VorZakone

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Washed up rather quickly. Early peak. But a great peak though.
 

L1nk

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We ruined him by playing him out of position in a system that didn't suit his style of play at all. He also never dated a pornstar
 

acnumber9

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He was always overrated. He had people on this forum singing his praises for the most average performances.
 

mu4c_20le

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I stopped following his career after Klopp criticized us for not knowing how to play him only to get himself sacked the next year
 

Ludens the Red

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To be fair, he was pretty good his first two years back at Dortmund. Was a regular and chipped in well.
 

Maluco

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Obviously there are other factors involved, but he is another one to file under “Klopp effect” and one of the big reasons why liverpool fans shouldn’t get ahead of themselves.

There will be more players than they think that will drop off when he leaves, and for all their talk of good recruitment and planning, we didn’t see any sign of it until their manager was making these players play above themselves.

He gets players to perform to another level and there are so very few examples of players that get on better without him.
 

izec

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Any truth in this?
His girlfriend was a Japanese pornstar at the time. He was also overeating and needed his stomach pumped.

He looked better at Dortmund than he was. The system suited him and i also think he didn't adapt here. Especially once Fergie retired, he wasn't needed after Mata
 

Carl

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Worth a punt?
not really
 

youngrell

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Felt sorry for him while he was here. Constantly got into good positions between the lines and just seemed to be completely ignored by teammates.

Fear VDB May suffer the same fate but hopefully not.
 

OleBoiii

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Made to look great by Klopp?
Nah, he was just really good back then. That's not to say that he didn't benefit from playing in that great Dortmund team, though.

I thought he was good under Fergie. He was poor under Moyes, but so was everyone else apart from two or three players. He went back to Dortmund before he could play under Van Gaal and did quite well for a year or two if I'm not mistaken. No idea what happened to him after that, but he played really well for Japan in that crazy game against Belgium in the 2018 WC.

I agree with the posters saying 'early peak'. If Fergie had retired a few years later I reckon his peak would have lasted much longer, though.
 

VivaObertan

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His girlfriend was a Japanese pornstar at the time. He was also overeating and needed his stomach pumped.

He looked better at Dortmund than he was. The system suited him and i also think he didn't adapt here. Especially once Fergie retired, he wasn't needed after Mata
I don't think the porn star thing was ever true. She was actually a TV personality who LOOKED LIKE the porn star. (Googled him a few months ago and read it was a myth)
 

FahadiHossein

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His girlfriend was a Japanese pornstar at the time. He was also overeating and needed his stomach pumped.

He looked better at Dortmund than he was. The system suited him and i also think he didn't adapt here. Especially once Fergie retired, he wasn't needed after Mata
Nope, pornstar girlfriend was definitely fake news by British tabloids. It was never reported among Japanese media.

He definitely played well under Klopp and Ferguson, but no manager after them knew how to use him. I guess he lost his confidence and motivation after that.
 

11101

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Another one who was totally ruined by Moyes's total lack of management skill. Career was never the same afterwards.
 

FootballHQ

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Didn't he go back to Dortmund at some point? Just peaked under Jurgen Klopp like many attacking players. It's quite a big list when you look at it.

Nuri Sahin was another around that time who was massively rated, went to Liverpool when Rodgers was there and hardly played. Was at Real Madrid at that point with 4 games in 3 years. Then went back to Dortmund for a bit and now playing in Turkey, only 32.

That Kevin guy with the mad surname was also key player for Dortmund, got some German caps but after amounted to player at Stuttgart and Darmstadt getting relegated from Bundesliga.

Lucas Barrios was a striker who had a fantastic scoring record for them before Lewandowski turned up. Then became backup and became journeyman player.
 

FootballHQ

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Another one who was totally ruined by Moyes's total lack of management skill. Career was never the same afterwards.
Well Fergie signed him and can't remember if he was a regular starter in 12-13 but can remember Klopp thinking he wasn't used correctly even then.

http://en.espn.co.uk/football/sport/story/208304.html

Then I presume LVG didn't think he was worth bothering with. Probably similar to Mikhitayran.

Dortmund is certainly one club in last 15 years who really appreciate attacking players and how to get the best out of them in their systems.
 

Lay

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Was it Moyes who said he doesn’t know much about him so didn’t play him? Or was that LVG
 

OleBoiii

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Then I presume LVG didn't think he was worth bothering with.
I was under the impression that Kagawa wanted to move and LVG just let him since we had Mata, Di Maria and Januzaj anyways. I remember being a bit surprised by that, because I think Kagawa could have worked well under LVG. But if a player wants to leave it's all irrelevant.
 

Web of Bissaka

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Originally the plan is to play him behind Rooney?

But RVP then join later and we had to shaft Kagawa out wide, which is not his best position?

He certainly doesn't impress even with SAF.
 

Nick7

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Van Persie transfer kind of got in his way. Once we signed RVP, we didn’t really have a space for him in the team. Did well, not excellent but passable, his first season regardless, but then Fergie left. Dunno what happened after that.
 

IAmAWinner

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I loved his hattrick against Norwich, 3 class finishes. Tbf his career started to go downhill the moment we signed Van Persie. Was never a left winger.
 

manuchamp88

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His girlfriend was a Japanese pornstar at the time. He was also overeating and needed his stomach pumped.
What kind of hack doctor would perform a stomach pump on someone who wasn't poisoned nevermind clearly never obese?