Arsenal striker Takuma Asano will reportedly link up with German club Stuttgart for a second straight season after he failed to receive a UK working permit.
The 22-year-old joined the Gunners from J-League club Sanfrecce Hiroshima for £5m during the last summer transfer window. He therein joined Stuttgart on a 1+1 loan deal with a few stipulations allowing the Gunners to cut short the overall length of his temporary contract.
Stuttgart would have had to either remain in the Bundesliga II with Asano having made less than 25 appearances or he became eligible for a UK working visa.
However, the Gunners have not had anything going their way with Asano having helped Stuttgart to Bundesliga promotion with 27 appearances while he still does not qualify for the permit.
As a result, the Japan international will ply his trade with Stuttgart for a second straight year (Bild) following a decent return of four goals and four assists in his first season in European football.
Stuttgart’s sporting director Jan Schindelmeiser has officially confirmed the striker will stay in Germany next season too. According to Bild, he said:
Takuma Asano will play with us next season. We have discussed this with him, his advisers and Arsenal.
Asano has a deal with Arsenal until 2018, and his second successive loan stint places doubts over whether he would ever feature for the north London club.
Joel Campbell had a similar situation following his arrival from Saprissa in 2011, and he has since failed to match his expectations despite earning his first-team debut a few years later.
Asano has yet to earn the Arsenal shirt in his career, but the faithful got a glimpse of his abilities during last summer’s Olympic games where he bagged two goals in three outings for Japan.
