Manchester United's Shinji Kagawa rejects La Liga switch

Manchester United midfielder Shinji Kagawa will be staying at the club, despite interest from several clubs around Europe, including Atletico Madrid.

Kagawa has struggled to make the same impact at United that he had in Germany with Borussia Dortmund, but his agent has insisted he will be staying put.

Fans of Kagawa’s former club, Dortmund, staged an online campaign to bring the Japanese star back to the Bundesliga, claiming the #FreeShinji hashtag on Twitter.

However, it seems to be to no avail as his agent, Thomas Kroth, stated he won’t be going anywhere just yet.

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 have confirmed that they had hoped to lure Kagawa back after losing Mario Gotze to Bayern Munich at the end of last season.

Dortmund’s 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 a transfer at this time.”