Wanderers pushed back their soccer boundaries today when they signed Japanese striker Akinori Nishizawa.

The player comes on a 12 month loan from Cerezo Osaka with an option to buy.

Nishizawa is the first Japanese footballer to play in the English domestic game and his signing could also provide the Wanderers with a lucrative Far Eastern market for their merchandise.

English football is already hugely popular in Japan and an appearance by one of their own players in the Premiership is bound to stimulate more interest, especially with the Wanderers.

After being unveiled at a press conference today, Nishizawa, speaking through an interpreter, said: "I am very honoured to be the first Japanese player to come to the Premiership and I'm just hoping I will be a success."

The player is no stranger to European football having spent six months on loan with Spanish club Espanol. He is reputed to be one of the top two strikers in Japanese football and Osaka wanted him back in a bid to clinch the title they missed out on by one point last season.

Sam Allardyce acknowledged that the player's experience with Espanol will stand him in good stead.

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"There will be a transitional period for him but the Spanish league is not too dissimilar to English football and he should integrate very quickly.

"He has pace and he can score goals - that's why we bought him."

The signing of Nishizawa could be the first of a number of overseas players heading for the Reebok. Some of them were on show in Saturday's 3-1 win over Radcliffe Borough, one of them, French international Nicolas Ouedec scoring the first goal.

The 29-year-old former Nantes, Paris St Germain and Montpellier player impressed in a game in which Wanderers used something like 30 players, many of them trialists.

Ouedec was linked with a move to Derby County last season and since coming out of contract has also had trials with Celtic and Dundee.

Also catching the eye was a Swiss international full back, who was born in the Congo, but Allardyce was also looking at a number of others, including Portuguese winger Angelo Lopez and Australian born keeper Giacomo Borango.

He is also linked again with Manchester United's versatile South African Quinton Fortune in a £3m deal and Bradford keeper Matt Clarke while sources have linked Wanderers with Racing Santander central defender Olof Mellberg.

Closer to home, former Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle player Kevin Gallacher hit the third goal in an impressive display and new Danish striker Henrik Pederson looked as if he could be a handful for Premiership defences.

Allardyce admitted: "We have a team of nations."