• Germany striker turned down Anzhi Makhachkala
• Russian club proposed deal worth twice as much
Lukas Podolski rejected a lucrative offer to join Anzhi Makhachkala in favour of a transfer to Arsenal in the summer, despite the money-flushed Russian club having proposed a contract worth twice as much as that to be signed by the Germany forward at the Emirates Stadium.
The 26-year-old is expected to complete a £10.9m move from Köln to the London club at the end of the current campaign and will commit to a four-year deal that, according to sources in Germany, is worth around £100,000 a week when signing on fees and associated bonuses are taken into account.
His manager at Köln, Stale Solbakken, was resigned to losing his services in the summer and Anzhi, an emerging force in European football who are now overseen by Guus Hiddink, had been willing to pay him a weekly salary of nearer £200,000 to swap the Bundesliga for the Russian Premier League.
The club, bank-rolled by the billionaire Suleyman Kerimov and based in Dagestan, are seventh in their domestic league, 12 points off Zenit St Petersburg at the top, but aspire to reaching the Champions League. The former Barcelona and Internazionale forward Samuel Eto'o leads the line, with Roberto Carlos another high-profile player at the club. Around £11m was spent last month to secure Blackburn Rovers' Congolese defender Christopher Samba.
Yet Podolski, who has scored 16 goals this season despite his hometown club languishing just above the relegation places, has instead opted for a move to England, having previously stated that his future would not be determined by the highest bidder. "Money is not the most important thing for me," he had told Sport-Bild. "What is crucial is the development of my game."
His arrival will still be considered something of a coup at Arsenal, particularly if the Poland-born forward goes on to excel for Germany at the summer's European Championship, and represents a shift in policy from Arsène Wenger to secure more established talent. The striker made his international debut in 2004 and has been capped 95 times, scoring 43 goals