J. League club Gamba Osaka on Thursday denied published reports out of Spain that Japanese midfielder Junichi Inamoto was poised to sign with Spanish second division side Atletico Madrid.
"(Signing with Atletico) is impossible at the moment," Gamba press officer Shinji Ito said, refuting a report in Wednesday's sports daily AS.
The 21-year-old Inamoto, currently recovering from a knee injury, was expected shortly in the Spanish capital to finalize the deal, the Spanish paper said.
Ito said the Spanish daily could have been confused by a Japanese sports newspapers' report that said Inamoto planned to train at Atletico for a short time during the J. League's offseason.
"But he is not training with them, either, as he's still injured," he noted.
Atletico was relegated from the top division last year and is a lowly 12th in the Second Division after 18 games.