Arsenal have completed a deal for Borussia Dortmund centre-back Sokratis Papastathopoulos for an undisclosed fee.
The Gunners reportedly paid around £16 million for the 30-year-old Greece international, who had a year left on his Dortmund contract and signs on a long-term deal.
Papastathopoulos, who will wear the No. 5 shirt, becomes new head coach Unai Emery’s third signing after right-back Stephan Lichtsteiner arrived on a free transfer from Juventus and goalkeeper Bernd Leno joined from Bayer Leverkusen.
The Gunners are also expected to finalise a deal for Sampdoria’s defensive midfielder Lucas Torreira as well after his World Cup campaign with Uruguay.
The defender said his former teammates helped convince him to move to London.
“I spoke [with them] a lot of times,” Papastathopoulos told the Arsenal website. “They said to me the best thing about this club is that it’s one big family. And of course they called me, not every day, but they called me a lot of times to [tell me to] come here.”
Emery is attempting to address the defensive problems that saw Arsenal concede 51 Premier League goals last season as they finished sixth — their worst campaign under Arsene Wenger.
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