Aki Ienaga close to Bundesliga loan deal

Real Mallorca’s Japanese winger Akihiro Ienaga is closing to sealing a loan switch to the Bundesliga with both Schalke and Bayer Leverkusen interested. The midfielder is not in the plans of new Head Coach Joaquín Caparrós.

Despite starting life in Mallorca brightly after his transfer at the beginning of the year, he quickly faded from team lineups. His overall performance was criticised by Michael Laudrup who, by the summer’s preseason, believe that Aki ‘hadn’t developed quick enough’ and was having trouble with the language barrier as he ‘couldn’t speak ten words of English or Spanish’.

Life under Joaquín Caparrós wasn’t too much better for Aki as he was still used sparingly. The winger was quoted as saying on the 2nd December, ‘my game is not at the level I want it to be. I have to improve my performance.’

Aki’s likely move to the Bundesliga was first reported at the beginning of December.