Arsenal complete signing of defender Sokratis from Borussia Dortmund
Posted Tuesday, July 03, 2018 by squawka.com
Arsenal have confirmed the signing of Borussia Dortmund centre-back Sokratis Papastathopoulos for a fee in the region of €19 million.
The 30-year-old defender has become the third signing under new manager Unai Emery since his appointment following Arsene Wenger's exit at the end of last season.
The north London club finally confirmed the capture on their official Twitter account.
Emery has clearly identified Arsenal's defence as a place to improve after already bringing in experienced full-back Stephan Lichtsteiner who arrived on a free transfer from Juventus and goalkeeper Bernd Leno who completed his move from Bayer Leverkusen last week.
The signing of Sokratis continues the latest tradition of Arsenal signing players who have either come directly from Dortmund or have played for the Bundesliga at some point in their career.
Influenced by their head of recruitment Sven Mislintat – who spent a period of time in Germany as chief scout for Dortmund – has overseen the arrivals of former-Dortmund players such as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Konstantinos Mavropanos.
Sokratis may step into the fold quicker than anticipated with Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny ruled out until at least November.
The Greek international has won 79-caps for his country to date.
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