Wolfsburg have fended off interest from a host of European rivals to sign Schalke midfielder Julian Draxler for a reported €35m (£25m).
Draxler, 21, had been strongly linked with a move to Juventus earlier in the summer but has instead opted to stay in the Bundesliga and put pen to paper on a five-year deal for last season’s runners up
“There are two reasons for our decision to accept Wolfsburg’s offer: we will not be disclosing information about the transfer fee, but we can say that it is the biggest transfer we’ve received for a player at Schalke. “Moreover, we have complied with Julian’s desire to move to another club,” explained Schalke’s sporting director Horst Heldt.
“At the end of last season, Julian came to me and expressly said that he wanted to leave the club. I told him that we would consider any offers that came in for him, but I also tried to convince him until the end to stay in light of the new sporting direction that we’re now taking.
“Julian acknowledges the positive developments that we’ve seen in recent months, but this did not change his stance. Instead he repeated his desire to leave.
Wolfsburg have moved quickly to reinvest the £55m they received from Manchester City for Kevin de Bruyne on Sunday having already signed Dante from Bayern Munich.
Draxler, who once came close to joining Arsenal, has seen playing time restricted over the last 12 months due to injury. However, he seems to have overcome those problems and has featured in all of Schalke’s first three league games, scoring once.
For more stats on Julian Draxler, click here to visit his WhoScored player page
