Arsenal have completed the signing of forward Kai Havertz from Chelsea in a deal ESPN reported last week to be worth up to £67.5 million ($85.4 million).
Kai Havertz has signed a long-term contract with the north London club and becomes Arsenal’s first signing of the transfer market.
“Kai is a player of the highest quality. He has great versatility and is an intelligent player. He will bring a huge extra strength to our midfield and variety to our game,” said Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta as quoted by ESPN.
“We welcome Kai and his family to Arsenal Football Club and we are all excited to start working with him as we begin pre-season training immediately.”
Kai Havertz endured an up and down period at Chelsea, often struggling to consistently show the match-winning ability he demonstrated at Bayer Leverkusen before moving to the Premier League club for an initial £62 million ($78.4 million) in 2020.
The highlight of Havertz’s Chelsea career is undeniably his game-winning goal in the 2021 Champions League final against Manchester City which ushered in the second European Cup in the team’s history.
“It’s a great pleasure for me to join this amazing club and be part of the Arsenal family,” said Havertz. “This club has a great history, and I hope we can achieve a lot.
“The mentality in the Arsenal squad is very high and you can feel it. That’s one of the reasons why it’s been so difficult to play against Arsenal lately.”
“The aim is to win trophies and I will give everything to do that for the supporters and everyone at the club. I am now looking forward to meeting all the players and staff when we return for pre-season.”
ESPN reported last week that Havertz had told Chelsea he was not interested in signing a new contract with the club, he is likely to make his Arsenal debut against Nottingham Forest on August 12.
Havertz’ departure from Chelsea comes amid sweeping changes at the west London club as owners Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly seek to trim their squad ahead of the arrival of new head coach, Mauricio Pochettino.
N’Golo Kante, Kalidou Koulibally and Edouard Mendy have all left Chelsea to join the Saudi Pro League club, while Hakim Ziyech, Christian Pulisic and Mason Mount are among those also linked with a move.
