Just a day after signing Mario Götze, Borussia Dortmund continue their spending spree by unveiling the signing of André Schürrle from VfL Wolfsburg on a five-year contract.
Strong attack
Although both clubs have confirmed the transfer, there was no definitive mention over the price-tag; but, the commonly held belief is the agreed fee is in the vicinity of the €30m mark.
Schürrle becomes Dortmund’s ninth signing of the summer, following the likes of Marc Bartra, Sebastian Rode and Ousmane Dembélé.
Sporting Director Michael Zorc spoke keenly of the signing: "André Schürrle is a Germany international with outstanding attacking potential who is also a very good passer of the ball and consistently contributes neatly to his team's defensive play." He added, "Though still just 25 years old, he has already amassed considerable international experience. His quality will be of great value for our team," before officially culminating the club’s spending spree up front: "Our offensive lineup is now complete."
BVB have already had a sizeable chunk removed from their squad; having to say farewell to the triumvirate of Mats Hummels, İlkay Gündoğan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan despite the club’s CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke maintaining not all three would leave in such a short space of time.
On the flip side, Wolfsburg have had to say goodbye to more crucial players after Naldo left for FC Schalke 04, a year after losing Kevin de Bruyne and Ivan Perišić.
The 25-year-old has plenty of history in the Bundesliga having played under manager Thomas Tuchel at Mainz, before helping Bayer Leverkusen secure back-to-back spots in European competitions. After an unsuccessful, inconsistent spell at Chelsea, Schürrle was sold to Wolfsburg where he notched up nine goals and three assists in 29 Bundesliga matches, despite being plagued by injuries — finishing the season as the club’s top scorer.
The Ludwigshafen-born star also won the DFB-Pokal with die Wölfe against his present club in 2015.
Personal aims
Schürrle explained his joy at joining BVB: "Borussia Dortmund is one of Europe's top clubs and they have a strong and extremely exciting squad."
He added, "I know from my own experience how much strength BVB can harness through its interaction with its fans and I am now very much looking forward to experiencing that as part of the Black and Yellows for the first time rather than as a marvelling opponent,”
He also spoke true of his ambitious intentions: “In the coming years I want to achieve success with Borussia Dortmund and can hardly wait to start training and to convince everyone that the club has made the right choice in signing me."
In the matter of a few days, Borussia Dortmund have signed not only the World Cup-winning goal-scorer for Germany, but also the player whom assisted him.