Stuttgart, Jan 30 (AP) Stuttgart signed Japanese attacking midfielder Genki Haraguchi and Portuguese winger Gil Dias on Monday as it tries to avoid relegation from the Bundesliga.

Haraguchi arrives from German club Union Berlin on a 1 1/2-year deal. The 31-year-old Japanese player had been at Union since 2021, playing 19 times this season. He has played 75 games for Japan but was dropped from the squad for last year's World Cup.

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The 26-year-old Dias joins from Benfica on a contract through 2025 after making only two substitute appearances in cup games this season. Germany will be the seventh different country where the former Portugal under-21 international has played league soccer, including spells at Fiorentina, Monaco and Nottingham Forest.

Stuttgart is 15th in the 18-team Bundesliga. The team takes on second-division club Paderborn in the German Cup on Tuesday and hosts Werder Bremen on Saturday in its next league game. AP

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(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)