Can Kagawa Do More Than Sell Manchester United Shirts?

Manchester United made waves in the transfer market recently by acquiring Japanese international Shinji Kagawa from Borussia Dortmund.

Was it more than just a cynical ploy to sell football shirts?
Was he signed purely for “footballing reasons”?

United signed him on a deal worth £12 million, thought to be able to rise to £17 million depending on success and appearances. However, given his popularity in Japan it was a no-brainer for the Reds to buy a player who not only knows how to find football nets but can increase the club’s commercial profile in the huge Asia market.

The group of Asian Premier League players is small – five from all 20 teams. And four of those five play for Arsenal and Manchester United.

There’s Park Ji-Sung from South Korea and now Shinji Kagawa. Both have proved themselves as prominent goal-scorers and both have won league titles – Park with United and Kagawa with Dortmund. Not only are they talented, hard-working players, but they’re also likely to increase sales of cheap football kits overseas.

The only other ambassadors from the Far East are South Korea’s Chu-Young Park and Japan’s Ryo Miyaichi. Both of them are Arsenal players, but they only have eight appearances and one goal between them. Not great considering they’re both strikers. Were they only bought to sell football shirts?

Finally there’s Korea’s Ji Dong-Won who fared somewhat more promisingly for Sunderland last season, scoring two goals in 21 appearances.

So why is the biggest continent on Earth so under-represented in the Premier League? Is it something to do with the difficulty in getting them here?

All players coming from Asia will have to apply for a work permit, and given the tightness of transfer deadlines waiting weeks for this to come through may not be worth it. Then there’s the language barrier and pure distance. With a completely different alphabet and language, as well as being over 5,000 miles from home, it may be difficult for Asian players to acclimatise as easily as it is for European players.

Maybe it’s purely the difficulty in researching the players, a lot of clubs may not want to spend money and time scouting and observing players that far away when there’s a much bigger – and easier to get to – player pool in Europe.

Time will tell whether Kagawa can co. can be as successful as Park Ji-Sung, but with a hefty price tag he’d better prove to be more than a marketing opportunity.