Arsenal F.C have confirmed the signing of Greece's soccer star, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, from Borussia Dortmund, for a fee of around £16 million (21 million USD).
Sokratis spoke of his signing, "I feel very good. It’s my first day here, everything is special. It’s a beautiful moment and I’m very happy that I will be here for the next few years. Arsenal is one of the biggest teams in the Premier League, Vieira, Henry, Pires, there are a lot of great players that have written big history here”.
Sokratis started his career in 2005 with AEK Athens and has since played for Genoa, AC Milan and Werder Bremen. In 2013, he was signed by Dortmund and went on to make over 130 appearances at the Westfalenstadion. Not to mention, the 30-year-old defender has also won 79 caps for his country, Greece.
He becomes the third signing for the rebuilding of Unai Emery’s defence, after the purchase of the German goalkeeper Bernd Leno for £19m from Bayer Leverkusen and the arrival of the 34-year-old Switzerland full-back Stephan Lichtsteiner on a free transfer from Juventus.
The defender also joins his former Dortmund teammates Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang at the Emirates Stadium, admitting that they played a key role in getting him to the club. “They called me a lot of times to come here, they said the best about this club, that it was a big family. It is beautiful to come to a new team with two players that I know very well,” Papastathopoulos said.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos will wear the No.5 shirt for Arsenal.
