Official: Sokratis Papastathopoulos Joins Arsenal From Borussia Dortmund

By The Editor
on 2nd July 2018

Arsenal announce the long-awaited arrival of Sokratis Papastathopoulos…

Arsenal have confirmed the arrival of Greek defender Sokratis from Borussia Dortmund in what was arguably the worst kept secret in football.

A number of reports claimed that a deal had been agreed last month but the German club wanted to wait until July to announce it for financial reasons.

The fee is rumoured to be around £16million, which is quite modest due to Sokratis being in the last year of his contract at the Bundesliga club.

The 30-year-old becomes our third summer signing following the arrivals of Stephan Lichsteiner from Juventus and goalkeeper Bernd Leno from Bayer Leverkusen.

Per Mertesacker’s retirement coupled with Laurent Koscielny’s serious injury meant that an experienced defender was of paramount importance this summer.

It remains to be seen if Sokratis was requested by Unai Emery given that the solid links to this particular move began before the Spaniard was even named head coach.

Sven Mislintat was the man reportedly behind this move and he’s gone for a trusted ally once again, making it three former Borussia Dortmund players to join Arsenal in the last six months.

With Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang already at the club, one can imagine that Sokratis will not take long to sette in.