West Ham United have made their 12th, and final, signing of the summer, with the arrival of full-back Alvaro Arbeloa.

Adding experience to the squad

The 33-year-old joins Slaven Bilic's side as one of the most highly-decorated full-back's in the game.

The former Liverpool man has won both the World Cup and European Championship with Spain, and the Champions League for Real Madrid.

The 33-year-old has signed on free transfer, signing a one-year deal at the London Stadium, and will wear the number five jersey.

Above: West Ham's new singing Alvaro Arbeloa in his last game for Real Madrid | Photo: Getty Images
Above: West Ham's new singing Alvaro Arbeloa in his last game for Real Madrid | Photo: Getty Images

Excited to get started

The Spaniard will add a lot of experience to Bilic's side, and he shared his delight at signing for the Hammers.

"I am really happy to be here in a great Club in a great league," Arbeloa told West Ham TV and admitted. "I'm really happy to be back in England and, for me, it's a great chance and I'm looking forward to playing with this side."

The Spaniard continued: "The Stadium is amazing. It's really nice and looks fantastic. Hopefully I'm going to see the Stadium full with all our fans and I'm really happy to be here," and was adamant that "For me, this is a great chance to be back in England and in the Premier League, which is a fantastic league and I want to put myself here again. This is a big Club and a great Club with fantastic players and a great coach."

Arbeloa concluded: "Slaven wants to see me training as soon as possible. I was talking with [Croatia internationals] Luka Modric and Matteo Kovacic and they told me good things about the coach, so I want to work with him and hopefully I can learn a lot of things." 

West Ham United will take on Watford at the London Stadium on Saturday, September 10 with kick-off at 3pm BST.

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Danial  Kennedy
Award-winning sports journalism graduate. Currently studying a PR Masters at the University of Sunderland. Writing for VAVEL since August 2014. Twitter - @ddkjournalism.