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Manchester United to sign Dortmund's Japan star Kagawa

updated 10:12 AM EDT, Tue June 5, 2012
Japanese international Shinji Kagawa joined Borussia Dortmund in 2010.
Japanese international Shinji Kagawa joined Borussia Dortmund in 2010.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Manchester United announce a deal to sign Borussia Dortmund's Shinji Kagawa
  • Kagawa's move is subject to passing a medical and obtaining a work permit
  • The Japan playmaker helped Dortmund to the double in Germany last season
  • Hertha Berlin captain Levan Kobiashvili handed record ban for hitting referee

(CNN) -- Manchester United announced on Tuesday an agreement had been reached with German champions Borussia Dortmund for the transfer of Shinji Kagawa.

The deal for the Japan playmaker is subject to him passing a medical and obtaining a U.K. work permit.

"Manchester United is delighted to announce that it has agreed terms with both Borussia Dortmund and Shinji Kagawa for his transfer to the club," read a brief statement on the 19-time English champions' website.

Kagawa has starred for Dortmund since arriving in Germany from J-League team Cerezo Osaka in 2010.

The 23-year-old scored 21 goals in 49 Bundesliga matches for Dortmund, helping Jurgen Klopp's team win back-to-back league titles and the 2012 German Cup.

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"We would like to thank Shinji for his commitment and for playing a big part in two exceptionally successful years culminating in two German championships and a cup title," Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc said on the team's website.

"We wish Shinji all the best for the future."

Elsewhere in Germany, Hertha Berlin captain Levan Kobiashvili has been handed a record seven-and-a-half-month ban after he admitted hitting referee Wolfgang Stark.

The incident occurred after the second leg of Hertha's relegation playoff with Fortuna Dusseldorf, a match which saw the team from the German capital demoted to the second tier.

The German Football Federation had initially handed the Georgian a one-year ban, but it was reduced on appeal on Monday.

Meanwhile, young Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba has revealed that he is joining Italian champions Juventus.

The 19-year-old France youth international has made only three first-team appearances since joining United in 2009.

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