Dutch international Nigel de Jong will link up with new club Manchester City by flying out to Tenerife to join their Canary training camp.
Although the transfer was undisclosed, German media reported that Mark Hughes’s side may have paid as much as £18m to sign him.
The midfielder had a clause in his contract that would have allowed him to leave Hamburg in the summer for £1.8m.
It is unknown whether City chiefs knew about the small print, or if they wanted to carry on regardless in order to strengthen their squad in a bid to avert being sucked into a relegation battle.
De Jong is delighted with the move though, and is eager to begin his “new adventure.”
“The ideas and the planning behind this club make me very hopeful,” he told the club’s official website.
“It is a new adventure so I am delighted to be here. The stadium looks great and it can only be better when it’s full of people.
“I am looking forward to playing here because everybody knows that the Premier League is maybe the biggest competition in the world,” he said.
