Amine Adli has explained his decision behind a £13 million move to Bayer Leverkusen after turning down Premier League strugglers Arsenal, speaking to the Bundesliga’s official website.
After Toulouse suffered play-off heart-break against Nantes back in May, it always felt inevitable that a jet-heeled forward who had recently been named the Ligue 2 Player of the Year would be on his way out the door.
The question was, who would he join?
According to Calciomercato, Adli was not exactly enamoured about putting pen to paper with an Arsenal side who missed out on European football for the first time in 25 years last season – long before the former France U18 international was even born.
Arsenal were not the only side to receive the cold shoulder either.
Toulouse president Damien Comolli admitted earlier in August that Adli had snubbed two more ‘gigantic’ clubs.
One of those may be AC Milan – the Rossoneri allegedly reached an agreement before a deal fell throguh (TMW).
Why did Amine Adli choose Leverkusen over Arsenal?
In the end, it was Leverkusen who won the race, winning the favour of a man who was obviously keen to ensure he made the right decision in such a crucial point of his short career while paying £13 million to secure his services (Sport1).
“Bayer are a club I find extremely appealing,” explains Adli, who produced eight goals and eight assists during his final season with Toulouse.
“I really wanted to come here. Leverkusen has a style of play that totally suits me. I can’t wait to play football with these guys – it’s going to be great fun.”
“This is another very important move for us at the end of the transfer period,” adds sporting director Simon Rolfes.
“Amine Adli is the final piece of the puzzle. He’s very fast with good technique, is extremely agile and tricky. I’m we’ll have a lot of fun with him in the years to come.”
Bayer Leverkusen certainly have an excellent track record when it comes to developing exciting young forwards.
Moussa Diaby, Leon Bailey, Kai Havertz, Kevin Volland, Andre Schurrle and Heung-Min Son have all passed through the Bay Arena over the last decade.
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