Italian club Perugia has made a formal offer to Japan midfielder Junichi Inamoto, the player's agent Nobuaki Tanabe said Monday.
Inamoto, who scored two goals for the cohost at the World Cup, will leave English Premier League champion Arsenal at end of the month and is supposed to make a temporary comeback to J. League first division side Gamba Osaka in July.
Perugia, the former club of Inamoto's Japan teammate Hidetoshi Nakata, was also in the news this week for initially releasing Ahn Jung Hwan after the South Korean scored the winning goal against Italy in the World Cup second round.
Tanabe also mentioned that the other European teams that have shown interest in Inamoto are Premier League team Fulham and Italy's Atalanta, but added that nothing official had come from these clubs.
He said the first priority in deciding which offer to take would be expectations of actual playing time.
At Arsenal, Inamoto did not make a single league appearance following his $5.7 million move from Gamba in July 2001, and was restricted to just two outings in the Worthington Cup and a pair of cameo roles in the Champions League.
"Inamoto and I will make a decision by the end of the month after narrowing the candidates down," Tanabe said.
Gamba Osaka said Friday it would meet with the midfielder in Osaka on July 1 to discuss his future.
"We will have talks about his future and they will include the possibility of his return to Gamba Osaka," it said.