Lyon (AFP)
The 23-year-old Danish defender of Sampdoria Genoa Joachim Andersen has signed a five-year contract with Olympique Lyonnais for EUR 30 million, the club announced Friday, recording the biggest transfer of his history.
OL, which wanted to recruit a major central defender, has agreed with Sampdoria for a dry amount of 24 million euros, plus a maximum of 6 million euros in bonuses, said the Rhone club in a statement.
This is a new record for the Olympique Lyonnais after the recruitment of former Lille midfielder Thiago Mendes (26.5 M EUR) earlier this month. This is also the largest amount ever incurred for the transfer of a Danish player.
Arrived in Lyon on Thursday, the defensive revelation of the season in Series A, where he played 32 games after a near-white season (7 matches) following his transfer from Twente (Netherlands, from 2013 to 2017), will Lyonnais until in 2024. He should be associated this season with the Belgian Jason Denayer in central defense.
Formed at FC Midtjylland with 16 caps in Espoirs, the 1.93m player was courted by several big European clubs, including England and Italy.
"It is with great pleasure that we welcome Joachim, it was one of our recruitment priorities, he was very well followed and we are very happy for his coming," OL President told reporters. Jean-Michel Aulas.
"Andersen was a priority, he's a technical defender, he goes to the duel, he can play on both sides, I can not wait to see him get back, we want him to play fast," he said. sports director of the Juninho club.
For this transfer window, OL already has seven recruits in its workforce, currently in training in Tignes. In addition to Andersen, the club recorded the arrivals of Youssouf Koné (Lille), Ciprian Tatarusanu (Nantes), Heritier Deyongue (PSV Eindhoven), Thiago Mendes (Lille), Nicolas Fontaine (Leipzig) and Jean Lucas (Flamengo).
© 2019 AFP