Shinji Kagawa: Impending Transfer Smart for Manchester United on and off Pitch

Shinji Kagawa is no Eden Hazard or Wesley Snijder, two star midfielders to whom Manchester United have been linked in recent memory.

But the Japan international could prove far more valuable to the Red Devils' cause than those two combined.

According to BBC Sport, Kagawa is expected to sign for the Red Devils in short order, with the club sending £12 million in transfer fees back to Borussia Dortmund. The 23-year-old attacker has been an integral part of a young, exciting Dortmund squad that's stormed its way to two straight Bundesliga titles, the latest of which was accompanied by a DFB-Pokal.

He should bring a much-needed dose of youth and creativity to a United midfield that was ravaged by injuries this past season and didn't quite find itself until Sir Alex Ferguson dragged Paul Scholes out of retirement.

More importantly, Kagawa's mere presence figures to bring even more notoriety to a football brand that's already among the biggest in the world.

A recent survey by The Telegraph revealed that United's global fan base has doubled over the past five years, to 659 million people, approximately 325 million of whom reside in Asia. That's twice as many supporters in that region of the world as the next closest club, Barcelona.

At least some portion of United's popularity in Asia can reasonably be attributed to Park Ji-Sung, the South Korea international who's been at Old Trafford since 2005. Park's future with the club remains in doubt, though per ESPN Soccernet, he wants to remain with Man U.

This, despite playing and contributing so inconsistently for much of his tenure in Manchester.

Whether Park departs or not, the addition of Kagawa would presumably open United up to an even bigger market in Japan.

Not that United necessarily need to sign players simply for market access. They're already supported by 10 percent of the global population, though their popularity is much more a precipitate of their success on the pitch than the national origins of their players. United commercial director Richard Arnold reiterated as much to the BBC:

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"Our popularity in certain countries or regions may depend, at least in part, on fielding certain players from those countries or regions.

"We don't sign players to sell shirts. We are reliant on 25 players and they are all massive stars. We have 25 George Clooneys.

"When you look at the success we've seen in that part of the world [Asia], it isn't down to any one player or person."

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True enough, though if the Red Devils are going to win, they might as well do so with a cast of characters that spans the globe.

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