Jan Kirchhoff has been officially unveiled as a Sunderland player.
The German defender has been close to completing a deal all week, and now he has officially put pen to paper on an 18-month contract.
With his deal at Bayern Munich being set to expire in the summer, Kirchhoff has been sold for a cut-price too, with the Black Cats only paying £750,00 for a defender who has admittedly had his injury problems, but who boasts a wealth of experience despite being only 25-years-old.
Allardyce delighted with recruit
Speaking to Sunderland's official website, manager Sam Allardyce expressed his joy with Kirchhoff's arrival, calling him a player of "very good pedigree."
"Even though he is still relatively young," the boss continued, "he has experience of football at the highest level," having played in the UEFA Champions League with Bayern and at the top end of the Bundesliga with both the Bavarian side and Schalke 04.
Kirchhoff is keen to get started according to his new manager too, with Allardyce telling the website that he's "desperately keen to experience the Premier League" and now the club's job is to ensure they do "everything" to allow him to "settle and adapt quickly" to English football.
Anything they can offer him to "help" make the transition a smooth one can help him "have a positive impact" on Wearside, he added, and the team will need him to make a difference given their desperate situation.
Back line in need of beefing up
Allardyce is also pleased to have brought in a player with "real versatility" - Kirchhoff "comfortable" in both central defence and central midfield roles.
However, it is the former, his more natural centre-back role, that will be music to the ears of Sunderland fans, with their team enduring the most unfortunate injury woes at the back recently.
The absences have led to Allardyce having to scrap his successful 3-5-2 formation, but he will hope Kirchhoff's arrival can help the team return to this fruitful set-up.