Kagawa: I can handle the pressure

Published Jul. 13, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Shinji Kagawa says he can't wait to pull on the Manchester United shirt, after completing his move to Old Trafford from Borussia Dortmund.

The midfielder will be played in an advanced role for United - a position that Sir Alex Ferguson believes he can take up straight away.

The Japan international has won back-to-back league titles in Germany with Dortmund since making the step up from the second tier of football in his homeland for the modest fee of around £350,000.

According to reports, his move to Manchester United could eventually be worth around £17million. And if the number of journalists from his homeland attending his unveiling is anything to go by, the attention on the 23-year-old, as well as his value is set to soar.

But Kagawa is relishing the challenge.

He said: "I'm happy to be here and every day I'll take the chance to improve myself and move further up.

"I've always said I have to improve my playing qualities; now I've been here a bit I can really feel the difference. It's a top level club and environment, and when the other internationals join us it will be even better.

"It's definitely the greatest challenge of my career and I hope to learn and improve every day. Everything here shows me it's a really big club and it's a great honor to play here. I want to really contribute by achieving concrete results.

"I definitely feel the attention of the media globally now. I'm a member of a great club at Manchester United but I think I can handle the pressure and am pretty confident I can adapt to the style of the Premier League."

Sir Alex Ferguson is confident that his new acquisition will pick up the language quickly.

"He's got an opportunity to get to know the players on tour and acclimatize to the way we are," said the United manager.

"I'm sure he will improve his English - or Scottish - over next few months, whichever he finds easier. He won't understand my Scottish when I lose my temper anyway!"

And Kagawa agreed: "Language is very important to me," he said. "I'm very motivated to learn English; I hope I can learn it quickly so I can communicate with my team mates very soon."