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| Sebastien Haller of Ajax celebrating the championship with the trophy dish during the Dutch Eredivisie match between Ajax v SC Heerenveen at the Johan Cruijff Arena on May 11, 2022 in Amsterdam Netherlands. |
Borussia
Dortmund have confirmed the signing of Sebastien Haller from
Ajax for a fee of around €36million (£31m).
Haller has put pen to paper on a four-year deal with
the Bundesliga outfit,
and the club's sporting director Sebastian Kehl has expressed his delight at
bringing the forward to Signal Iduna Park.
'The overall package is very promising. Sebastien possesses a strong physical presence and he is physically very resilient.
'With his experience, he can also offer support and stability to our young attacking players. During the talks with us, he made it clear that he has big ambitions with BVB.'
Haller will have big boots to fill at Dortmund as he
prepares to take the No. 9 shirt from Erling Haaland, who completed his move to
Manchester City last month.
Haaland netted 83 goals in 87 matches for the German
side, establishing himself as one of the finest strikers in Europe.
However, Haller has also proven himself after a
tricky spell at West Ham, where he struggled to settle in England.
The 28-year-old only scored 14 goals in 54
appearances for the Irons, but he went on to thrive at Ajax, finding the net on
47 occasions in 65 games for the Dutch giants.
He won back-to-back domestic titles under Erik ten
Hag, finishing as the club's top goalscorer in the league last term with 21
strikes.
Haller also scored 11 goals in the Champions League
in 2021-22 - only Karim Benzema (15) and Robert Lewandowski (13) netted more.
The Ivorian is now set for his second spell in
Germany, having previously played for Eintracht Frankfurt between 2017 and
2019, and will hope to help Dortmund close the gap to Bayern Munich next season
under new manager Edin Terzic.
