Shinji Kagawa: A Ruhr derby hero

Shinji Kagawa still has very clear memories of his derby debut seven years ago. The midfielder, then just 21, had left his homeland of Japan only a few weeks earlier and could hardly understand a word of German at the time. But that didn't stop him from immediately grasping that he had done something special when, on 19 September 2010, he bagged a brace in the Ruhr derby and sent the Black & Yellow faithful into a state of frenzy.

At the time, BVB had been waiting over three years for a victory over their arch-rivals. Hellish times, but Kagawa brought them to an end in some style. "At the time I really knew very little about Dortmund," he confesses today, more than seven years later, as he enjoys a Currywurst at a café in the vicinity of his Phoenixsee home in Dortmund's Hörde district. "But I noticed right at the beginning that this was a match unlike any other," he added.

Immediately on arriving at the club, Kagawa was told by Kevin Großkreutz about the fascination and legend surrounding derbies with Schalke and taught the most important chants. But the first signs of the desire for a victory over Schalke did not become visible until a week before the derby. BVB had recorded a 2-0 win over Wolfsburg, with Kagawa netting his first-ever Bundesliga goal, but the spectators in the South Stand had already turned their attention to what lay ahead. "We want to win the derby!" they roared. Kagawa might not have understood the exact meaning, but he knew "that something was in the air". His team-mates then explained it to him en route to the changing rooms, and at that moment Shinji remembered Großkreutz's songs. It would not be until the day of the match, however, that the derby atmosphere hit him. "I remember it like it was only yesterday," said Kagawa, grinning. "I looked out of the bus and only saw Schalke fans. At that point I knew: we've really got to win here!"

"A rivalry like the one between Dortmund and Schalke doesn't exist in Japan"

A few days earlier he had given one of his first interviews in Germany, telling Sport-Bild newspaper that the Black & Yellows would beat Schalke 2-0. When pressed on who would score the goals, he answered in confident fashion: "Me. Twice!" At that's exactly what ended up happening. From the very first minute the diminutive Japan international – then sporting slightly longer hair – wrought havoc, popping up in the centre and on the flank, and causing Schalke trouble wherever he went. The opening goal came in the 19th minute. First he left Benedikt Höwedes trailing in his wake, then curled an unstoppable effort past Manuel Neuer! Kagawa could hardly believe what was happening to him. A few weeks earlier, he had still been lacing his boots in the Japanese second division; suddenly, here he was, silencing an entire stadium with a well-placed solo effort. "It fell silent all of a sudden," he recalled, smiling from ear to ear. He remembers the moment when his team-mates ran over to him to celebrate. "Schmelle, Nuri, Mario, all of them – that was when I really got to know them for the first time! I hadn't seen them like that before," he said.

The raw emotion of the derby did not escape Kagawa that day. Not only the fact that he had never been booed as much as he was on entering the stadium, but also the extraordinary way both teams were approaching the match. "The tackles were even harder than they had been in the previous games. But I simply decided to go in more aggressively too," he said. Everyone in the stadium could see it. As the half-time whistle sounded, Shinji was booked. But coach Jürgen Klopp did not withdraw him – and Kagawa thanked him in style. In the 58th minute he escaped his markers and latched onto a perfect ball from Jakub Blaszczykowski to make it 2-0. The derby was won. BVB finished as 3-1 victors that day. And suddenly, a whole country knew who Shinji Kagawa was: the derby hero in Black & Yellow.

"I noticed right at the beginning that this was a game unlike any other."

"The boy is 21, has left behind his family, only has his interpreter to talk to, and has now gone and written his name into the history books," declared Klopp at full-time, knowing full well that the hype surrounding his new signing was only just beginning. That evening, around 800 fans gathered in front of SIGNAL IDUNA PARK to welcome Kagawa and Co. back to Dortmund, setting off fireworks and singing in full voice. "Derby winners, derby winners, hey, hey" they roared deep into the night. The two-goal hero instantly experienced the passion of BVB celebrations first-hand as he was carried aloft through the darkness. "I've never seen something this amazing," said Roman Weidenfeller. But Kagawa, a shy youngster from the Far East, was visibly uneasy with all the hype coming his way. "I'd never experienced that," he said, as he recalled the events of that memorable day, adding: "But now I'm a little bit older and I can safely say: that day will always be one of the greatest moments of my career!"

For Kagawa, the derby was a key event on a personal as well as a sporting level. "After that I felt like I'd really arrived here," he recalled and looked down shyly at his Currywurst as he said: "I now know that when you're the derby hero, Dortmund is a pretty good place to live." His brief spell over in England aside, Kagawa has now been living in the Ruhr region for seven years – and since day one, the mentality of the locals has been making an impression on him. "I was welcomed with such open arms and have always got on well with everyone," he said. His family and friends have had similar experiences. "They are always surprised at the number of people who speak to them," said Shinji. "The warm-heartedness of the people here is simply irreplaceable!" In that regard, the people in Westphalia are not so different from those in his Japanese homeland. Kagawa feels that the biggest difference between the two is football, especially in the run-up to the derby. "A rivalry like the one between Dortmund and Schalke doesn't exist in Japan. I realised straight after my first derby that this must be the football in Germany that is always talked about." Now he knows: "Something like that is only possible if football is part of the fabric of a country's culture."  

"I now know that when you're the derby hero, Dortmund is a pretty good place to live."

Shinji Kagawa knows all too well from his time at Manchester United that derbies are fiery encounters. He played for the Red Devils, whose greatest rivals have always been Liverpool, between 2012 and 2014. Kagawa featured in that fixture, known in England as the North-West derby, just as many times as he did in the Manchester derby with crosstown rivals City. But the Ruhr derby, the Japan international says, is in a league of its own. "The match here is simply more electric," said Kagawa. "Both on and off the pitch." It's another reason he's happy to have been back in Dortmund for the last three years.

"From the first derby it was clear to me that you need to play beyond your limits in such matches. Otherwise you can't expect any recognition!" A glance at his performance statistics from Ruhr derbies shows that he has internalised this mantra like few others. Kagawa has now scored four times against Schalke – more than any other Bundesliga opponent. And, if he gets his own way, there will be a few more to look forward to in the future. Only this summer he extended his contract until 2020. "After seven years I can feel how close we've all become here in Dortmund," he said. He played a big part in that coming together with his brace in 2010. It was pretty much the springboard for the most successful period in the club's recent history.

"The tackles were even harder than they had been in the previous games. But I simply went in more aggressively myself."

Spurred on by the derby victory, BVB remained unbeaten for the next 15 matches, surprisingly winning 14 of them. Having been crowned a winter champion and been labelled a "whizz" and a "god", Kagawa bade farewell to his team-mates at the start of 2011 as he departed for the Asia Cup, where he suffered the first major setback of his fledgling career: a broken metatarsal and six months on the sidelines. Disappointingly, he didn't only miss his national team's victory at that tournament in Qatar, but also his first ever derby at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK. Only on the final day of the season did he make his comeback, lifting the Bundesliga Shield as compensation for his troubles.

Since then, Shinji Kagawa has not always been the certain starter he was in the first half of the 2010/11 season. But when derby time rolls around, the 28-year-old has almost always featured and consistently given everything – just as he did that day in his first Ruhr derby. "Nothing has changed after all those years. The pressure is always the same, and the demand is simple: you have to win; anything else doesn't count," he said.

BVB have not won any of the last three derbies – they have all ended in draws. So just as there was in 2010, there is a real desire to win. It sounds like a match made for Shinji Kagawa.
Jan-Philip Kirschke