WELCOME: Real Madrid’s German midfielder Mesut Ozil became an Arsenal player yesterday. (AFP)
Arsenal made their first major signing of the transfer window when they smashed the club record to buy Germany playmaker Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid just minutes before the deadline on Monday.
The Londoners confirmed it was a record but did not disclose the fee. Media reports said the 24-year-old cost 42.5 million pounds ($66.15 million), eclipsing the previous highest of 15 million pounds paid for Russian Andriy Arshavin in 2009.
“We are extremely pleased to have signed Mesut Ozil,” manager Arsene Wenger said on the club website (www.arsenal.com). “He is a great player with proven quality at both club and international level. We have watched and admired him for some time as he has all the attributes I look for in an Arsenal player.”
Chief executive Ivan Gazidis added: “This is an exciting day for all of us. We have signed a world-class player who is one of Europe’s brightest young talents.”
Arsenal’s only previous signings in this window were free agents—France youth international Yaya Sanogo and returning midfielder Mathieu Flamini from AC Milan. They also took Palermo’s Italy goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano on loan.
Ozil scored 19 goals in 104 La Liga games over three seasons at Real and his move from the Bernabeu follows Gareth Bale’s world record 100 million euros ($131.88 million) transfer to Madrid from Tottenham Hotspur.
Speaking after completing his medical in Germany, Ozil said: “I am thrilled to be joining a club of the stature of Arsenal and looking forward to playing in the Premier League. It will be great for my own personal development as a player and I am particularly looking forward to working with Arsene Wenger. From our negotiations it is clear the club have huge ambition and I look forward to being part of an exciting future.”
Ozil had earlier flown from Madrid to Munich to link up with the Germany squad preparing for their World Cup qualifiers against Austria on Friday and the Faroe Islands next Tuesday.
“We’re all looking forward to him joining up with us after his international matches and working with us as an Arsenal player,” said Wenger.
The Frenchman was criticised by the fans and the media for not splashing out on new players, especially with neighbours Tottenham spending more than 110 million pounds on seven internationals ahead of Bale’s departure to Real.
Wenger, however, indicated after Arsenal beat Spurs 1-0 in the Premier League on Sunday that a major signing could be completed on the final day of the window.
“I have said throughout the summer that we have been working hard to bring in top quality players,” he said after signing long-term target Ozil. “This has involved many, many people across the club and I have always had the full support of the club in making decisions on the football side.”
The Gunners have endured a frustrating eight-year wait for silverware since winning the FA Cup in 2005.
‘I had lost Ancelotti’s confidence at Madrid’
Mesut Ozil quit Real Madrid to join Arsenal because he realised he no longer had the confidence of Real coach Carlo Ancelotti, the Germany playmaker said yesterday.
Ozil sulked after Ancelotti substituted him in last month’s La Liga match at Granada and the Italian then left him on the bench for Sunday’s 3-1 victory at home to Athletic Bilbao.
“I was certain that I would stay at Real Madrid,” Ozil said in an interview published on the German soccer federation’s website (www.dfb.de).
“Then I realised that I didn’t have the confidence of the coach and the officials after all,” added the 24-year-old of Turkish origin. “I am a player who needs that confidence and I saw that I would have that at Arsenal and that is why I am going there.”
Ozil said he was happy to be joining up with Germany teammates Lukas Podolski and Per Mertesacker at Arsenal and the fact that the London club’s manager Arsene Wenger spoke German would help him to settle in.
“Wenger gives me the confidence that I can develop further and I want to be in top form for the World Cup next year,” he said.
“I spoke to him for a long time on the telephone and he told me his expectations and he trusts me, which I need as a player. I am a player who always wants to play a whole match, the full 90 minutes.”
Real fans who gathered at the Bernabeu for Bale’s presentation on Monday chanted for Ozil to stay and the player had warm words for the supporters of his former club.
“It makes you sad of course when you hear things like that but I wish my friends there all the best, that they stay healthy and are successful.”