Madrid, Aug 18 (DPA) Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho is pleased that his club has managed to sign Mesut Oezil from Werder Bremen.
Mourinho was given the good news after Real’s 1-1 friendly draw away to Standard Liege.
‘He was a player finishing his contract with his club in 2011,’ said the Portuguese coach, ‘and therefore we have been able to get him for a price much lower than his real market value.’
According to Spanish media reports, Real will pay Bremen around 15 million euros ($19.2 million) for Oezil, who was outstanding for Germany at the World Cup.
Mourinho added that ‘we really could not let a player of his quality escape from us, in these conditions.’
Oezil, 21, is Real’s sixth summer signing – after Sami Khedira, Ricardo Carvalho, Pedro Leon, Sergio Canales and Angel Di Maria – and raises their summer spending to almost 80 million euros, by far the highest in Spain. He is the eighth German player ever to be signed by Real.
An online poll taken by the website of Marca Tuesday – in which 10,239 votes had been registered – showed that 63.7 per cent of readers agree with the signing.
Marca claimed on Tuesday that Rafael Van der Vaart will probably now be sold off to make room for Oezil, despite the Dutchman’s classy free-kick goal against Standard Liege.
