Lukas Podolski has left Arsenal for Galatasaray as the Turkish club have confirmed the deal on their Twitter account.
The Germany international signed his three year contract in front of the media on Saturday afternoon, after Galatasaray and Arsenal came to an agreement on his permanent transfer.
Podolski has been on holiday in Turkey and entered into negotiations with the reigning league champions earlier this week.
SUBMIT AN ARTICLE
Got an opinion on Petr Cech's move to Arsenal? Share it by submitting an article to GMS here: https://gms.to/haveyoursay5
The 30-year-old forward, who boasts the best minutes-per-goal ratio of any Arsenal player in the Champions League (90-minutes-per goal), was told this summer by Arsene Wenger that he was no longer needed at the Emirates Stadium.
The fee is reported to be somewhere in the region of £2.8m, and Podolski had just one season left on his Gunners contract after playing the second half of last season on loan at Inter Milan.
Galatasaray have been long-term admirers of the hard-hitting German forward, attempting to sign him from Koln in 2012.
The former-Bayern Munich attacker spurned their advances then, choosing instead to sign for Wenger at Arsenal.
The confirmation tweet
In 82 appearances for the Gunners Podolski has scored 31 goals - a perfectly acceptable total for a forward who was asked on many occasions to play from the left rather than in his preferred central position.
In the end, an abundance of attacking talent blocked his path at the Emirates. Wenger never saw him as a number nine and therefore he was forced to battle the likes of Santi Cazorla, Mesut Ozil, Danny Welbeck, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Aaron Ramsey and Alexis Sanchez for a place behind Olivier Giroud.
What do you think Arsenal fans - the right decision by Wenger to let him go?
Have your say!
Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: https://gms.to/writeforgms
Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: https://www.givemesport.com/writeforgms