Inter sign Yuto Nagatomo on loan deal

Inter defender Davide Santon has moved in the opposite direction as part of the deal.

Nagatomo has impressed since arriving in Italy from FC Tokyo and has often been labeled as one of the best left-back’s in Serie A this season.

Nagatomo is also a member of the Japanese team that just recently won the Asian Cup.

A statement on the Inter.it website read:

F.C. Internazionale has completed the loan signing of 24-year-old Yuto Nagatomo after registering the player's contract at the Lega Serie A offices. Davide Santon has moved to Cesena, also on loan, as part of the deal.

Everybody at Inter would like to welcome Nagatomo to the club. One of the undisputed stars of Japanese football, he was part of the Olympic Team at Beijing 2008 and also played for Japan at the 2010 World Cup. Last Saturday he won the 2011 Asian Cup under the guidance of ex-Inter coach Alberto Zaccheroni, whom Massimo Moratti and the Club would like to congratulate. Our new signing played a decisive role in the final against Australia, providing the cross for Tadanari Lee to score the winner.

We wish Davide Santon all the best for the second half of the season and hope can become a key player at the club owned by Igor Campedelli.

"I'm very happy to have joined Inter, the world champions. Now I have to prove to everyone that I can play. What's happened today came out of the blue, but now that I'm here I have to give it everything I've got." Those were Yuto Nagatomo's first words as an Inter player, as he stood outside the Nerazzurri headquarters after putting pen to paper on his loan deal.

"I already know some of my new team-mates," the Japanese defender went on. "I met Samuel Eto'o when I played against him with Japan in the World Cup; and the same goes for Wesley Sneijder. But I expect I'll soon make friends with the whole team."

The newly crowned Asian Cup champion is the first Japanese player to don the black and blue of Inter: "That fills me with great pride. I really want to succeed wearing the Nerazzurri colours." Nagatomo concluded.