LONDON • Arsenal have bolstered their attacking line-up by breaking their transfer record for a second straight window to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the English Premier League club announced on transfer deadline day yesterday.
British media reported that the deal with Borussia Dortmund was around £56 million (S$103.8 million), eclipsing the £46.5 million Arsenal paid French side Lyon for forward Alexandre Lacazette last year.
"I'm really happy to be here. Of course I can join Micki (Henrikh Mkhitaryan) in this team, so I'm really happy to be here in this great team," said Aubameyang.
"The club have such a big history and great players like Thierry Henry. He's an example for us strikers. I'm a fast player and I score goals too, like Henry a little bit. But as I said, I have to work a lot more."
A statement from Arsenal announcing the deal described Aubameyang, 28, as "one of the world's most highly rated strikers".
He is Gabon's all-time top scorer with 23 goals from 56 matches and was named the African Footballer of the Year in 2015.
He scored 98 goals in 144 German Bundesliga games and had a hand in 172 goals in 213 matches in all competitions for Dortmund since joining from St-Etienne in 2013.
From the 2015-16 season, he has scored 100 goals for Dortmund in all competitions - 45 more than any player has scored for Arsenal in the same period. He also helped the club win the German Cup last year.
He links up with former Dortmund team-mate Mkhitaryan after the Armenia midfielder moved to the London club from Manchester United last week, with Chile forward Alexis Sanchez going the other way.
Embarrassingly for Arsenal, Arsene Wenger inadvertently confirmed the Aubameyang transfer after his side's 3-1 Premier League defeat by Swansea on Tuesday.
The club's media team posted a video of the manager which was meant to be his post-match reactions but it turned out to be Wenger welcoming his new striker.
He said in the video: "Yes, it is good news. We need people who can give us more offensive power. At the moment, we aren't enough going forward and I am convinced he will give us that.
"He has a big challenge in front of him. He wants to do well in the Premier League. It is absolutely good news for us.
"His pace, his finishing. The quality of his runs. His huge physical capacity, that will be important in the Premier League."
The deal has set in motion a chain of transfers that took Arsenal's Olivier Giroud to Chelsea and Chelsea's Michy Batshuayi to Dortmund on loan - completing a transfer merry-go-round for the three clubs.
Giroud's sale means the Gunners have, in the space of 14 days, sold their top scorer in each of the past five seasons from 2012-13: Walcott (21 goals), Giroud (22), Sanchez (25), Giroud (24) and Sanchez (30).
In another good piece of news for Wenger, Mesut Ozil has agreed to a new 31/2-year contract that will take the German playmaker until the summer of 2021 and make him the club's highest-paid player on £350,000 a week.
The Gunners are also close to agreeing a new contract with Jack Wilshere, whose current deal is set to expire in the summer.
THE GUARDIAN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
