Goodbye Shinji Kagawa, Hello Hiroshi Kiyotake. Kiyotake named Man of the Match with goal and two assists

The Bundesliga may have lost midfielder Shinji Kagawa following his move from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester United, but German fans can delight in a new Japanese star in Hiroshi Kiyotake.

The 22-year-old midfielder was the man of the match in Nuremberg’s 3-2 victory at Borussia Moenchengladbach Saturday, and woke up Sunday to some appreciative headlines in the German media.

“A win from the Far East,” Der Tagesspiegel wrote, while Frankfurter Allgemeine said, “A Japanese leads Nuremberg to victory.”

Kiyotake, in only his third Bundesliga appearance since joining Nuremberg in July, set up Nuremberg’s opening two goals from Timm Klose and Timmy Simons – the first with a free-kick, the second from a corner.

After Moenchengladbach pulled back to level at 2-2 he then struck the 55th-minute winner in one of the best goals of the weekend, beating two players before driving the ball into the corner of the net.

“Kiyo showed in this game why we made so much effort to get him,” Nuremberg coach Dieter Hecking said. “We couldn’t expect that he would immediately make such an impact but we shouldn’t get carried away.”

Bild am Sonntag weekly said Nuremberg had now discovered “the next Kagawa” with 1-million-euro signing Kiyotake – and in fact there are many similarities between the two players.

Kiyotake is at 1 metre 72 centimetres tall the same size as Kagawa, he has come to Germany from the same club, Cerezo Osaka, plays in the same attacking midfield role and has the same adviser and interpreter.

Kiyotake, who made his debut for the Japanese national team in August last year and played for Japan at the 2012 summer Olympics in London, hopes there will be more to come after a promising league start for Nuremberg, who have seven points from three games.

“I am pleased that I was able to decide the game with my first goal,” he said through his interpreter. “We are by no means at our limit yet, and that goes for me, too.”

via Goodbye Shinji, welcome Kiyotake – SuperSport – Football.

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