BIOGRAPHY AND CAREER
Shinji Kagawa born March 17, 1989 in Tarumi-ku, Kobe, Japan is a Japanese football player. He plays for the German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund.
Kagawa started playing football in his primary school years. He joined Kobe NK Football Club and later moved to FC Miyagi Barcelona in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. Cerezo Osaka quickly noticed his talent and signed him at the age of 17. He was the first player in Japan to sign a professional contract before graduating high school, except players promoted from youth teams of the J. League clubs.
In 2007 season, he gained a regular position but the club missed the promotion to the J. League Division 1.
On 23 August 2010, he made his debut appearance in the German Bundesliga, starting for his new club Borussia Dortmund. After scoring his first two competitive goals for the club in the Europa League qualifying tie against Qarabağ Ağdam, he continued this form with his first goal in the Bundesliga match against Wolfsburg, which Dortmund won 2–0. In the Revierderby against archrival Schalke 04, which Dortmund won 3-1, Kagawa said pre-match that he would score two goals, he then went on to score twice, making him one of the fan's favorites.
Kagawa played as a member of the Japan national under-20 football team in the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup held in Canada.
In 2008 he was also selected to play as a member of the Japanese team for the 2008 Summer Olympics. On 24 May 2008 he made his senior international debut in a friendly Kirin Cup match. Japan won the match against Côte d'Ivoire 1–0. He was not selected in Takeshi Okada's final 23 squad for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. In September 2010 he scored the only goal of the game in Japan's 1–0 win over Paraguay in Yokohama.
He was included in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup by coach Alberto Zaccheroni. In the quarterfinals against Qatar, he scored 2 goals. The game ended 3-2, a win for Japan. In the semifinal against South Korea, Kagawa broke his metatarsal and missed the final where Japan beat Australia after extra-time.
SHINJI KAGAWA PROFILE
Full name: Shinji Kagawa
Date of birth: 17 March 1989
Place of birth Tarumi-ku, Kobe, Japan
Height: 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Playing position: Attacking midfielder
Club information
Current club: Borussia Dortmund
Number: 23
Youth career
2001–2005 FC Miyagi Barcelona
Senior career
2006–2010 Cerezo Osaka 125 (55)
2010– Borussia Dortmund 17 (8)
National team
2006–2009 Japan U-20 13 (3)
2008– Japan U-23 5 (1)
2008– Japan 21 (5)
