Arsenal sign Kai Havertz from Chelsea in £67.5m deal

Arsenal have completed the signing of forward Kai Havertz from Chelsea in a deal that ESPN reported last week is worth up to £67.5 million ($85.4m).

The Germany international has signed a long term deal with the north London club and becomes Arsenal’s first signing of the transfer window.

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“Kai is a player of top quality. He has great versatility and is an intelligent player. He will bring a huge amount of extra strength to our midfield and variety to our play,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said.

“We welcome Kai and his family to Arsenal Football Club and we are all excited to start working with him when we start pre-season training soon.”

Havertz has had a turbulent spell at Chelsea, often struggling to consistently produce the match-winning ability that he had shown at Bayer Leverkusen before moving to the Premier League club for an initial £62 million ($78.4m) in 2020.

The high point of Havertz’ Chelsea career is undeniably his match-winning goal in the 2021 Champions League final against Manchester City that delivered the second European Cup in the team’s history.

We keep moving forward.​

Kai Havertz is a Gunner ❤️ pic.twitter.com/76j5BStw9e

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) June 28, 2023

“It’s super exciting for me to be joining this amazing club and to be part of the Arsenal family,” Havertz said. “This club has such a big history, and I hope we can achieve lots of things.

“The mentality in the Arsenal squad is very high and you can feel that. That was one of the reasons why it has been so hard to play against Arsenal recently.

“The aim is to win trophies and I’m going to give everything to do that for the supporters and everyone at the club. I’m now looking forward to meeting all the players and the staff when we come back for preseason.”

ESPN reported last week that Havertz had informed Chelsea that he had no interest in signing a new contract with the club — he will likely make his Arsenal debut against Nottingham Forest on Aug. 12.

Havertz’ departure from Chelsea comes amid wholesale changes at the west London club as owners Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly look to trim the size of their squad ahead of the arrival of new head coach, Mauricio Pochettino.

N’Golo Kante, Kalidou Koulibally and Edouard Mendy have already left Chelsea to join Saudi Pro League clubs, while Hakim Ziyech, Christian Pulisic and Mason Mount are among those to have also been linked with moves away.