Football News
Agent: Honda open to Premier League move
Sport.co.uk understands Japanese star Keisuke Honda is open to a move the Premier League, however, it is as yet unknown whether CSKA Moscow will allow him to leave the club.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger revealed his admiration for Honda last week , labelling him the “best performer” at the World Cup and a “genius.” The Gunners and Liverpool were reportedly interesting in signing Honda when he was at Dutch side VVV Venlo, although Russian side CSKA Moscow eventually won the race to sign Honda in a deal worth a reported 6 million euros.
The 24-year-old Japanese international started his career at the same club as former Arsenal player Junichi Inamoto, Gamba Osaka, before moving onto Nagoya Grampus Eight, the club from whom Arsene Wenger joined the Gunners in 1996.
The agent of Honda, Kees Ploegsma, told Sport.co.uk in an exclusive interview that the Japanese international could be open to a move to the Premier League:
“There has been no interest as of yet, only rumours. But obviously he is open to think about everything. The difficulty is that he has just signed a four and a half year contract at CSKA Moscow and he has only been there for half a year. Plus, they paid a good price for him.
“Obviously he is open to interest and talk of the Premier League but the second issue is CSKA Moscow. I am not saying it is unlikely that they might sell him, but I don’t know what price they would be asking for as he is under contract for another four and a half years.
“There have been no phone calls or anything direct, but there is smoke without fire is there?!”
Honda played in all four of Japan's World Cup matches as the Samurai Blues reached the second round before losing on penalties to Paraguay.