Dortmund Boss Accepts Defeat In Pursuit of Manchester United Midfielder

Jurgen Klopp has been forced to accept defeat in his bid to bring Manchester United midfielder Shinji Kagawa back to Borussia Dortmund.

The 24 year old completed his move to Old Trafford from Dortmund last summer but struggled to hold down a regular slot in United's midfield, eventually making 20 Premier League appearances and scoring six goals.

It was a slightly underwhelming debut campaign for the highly skilled midfielder who had played an instrumental role in Dortmund winning consecutive league titles as he fired 21 goals in just 49 league appearances.

Earlier this year Klopp revealed he was devastated to see Kagawa merely playing a bit part role at United.

"Shinji Kagawa is one of the best players in the world and he now plays 20 minutes at Manchester United - on the left wing," Klopp told reporters. "My heart breaks. Really, I have tears in my eyes.

"Central midfield is Shinji's best role. He's an offensive midfielder with one of the best noses for goal I ever saw. But for most Japanese people it means more to play for Man United than Dortmund. We cried for 20 minutes, in each others' arms, when he left."

Having seen Kagawa be somewhat underappreciated at Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson, Klopp admitted that he attempted to bring the Japan international back to the Westfalenstadion.

"This is not a topic of conversation this season, even for us," said Klopp, as quoted in Voetbal Primeur. "It was clear relatively quickly that Shinji wants to stay at United this season. There was no other answer I expected, but you still have to ask again."

Kagawa will hope that he can convince new Manchester United boss David Moyes to hand him more opportunities in his preferred central midfield role, especially now that Paul Scholes is no longer on the club's books.

The former Cerezo Osaka midfielder has made two appearances in pre-season for United and will hope to gain more opportunities to impress in their warm-up games.