© EuroFootball.com
This season, following an unsuccessful performance in the German Bundesliga, Bayern Munich, finishing in 4th place, agreed to sell safety Owen Hargreaves to the club that won the title in the English Premier League.
"Owen will leave our team. That's what the player himself wanted. The player and Man Utd suit each other and besides, it's a good deal financially," said Bayern club president Franz Beckenbauer to a German television.
Former legendary player of the German national team F. Beckenbauer stated that the transfer fee is around 17 million pounds sterling (25 million euros), which is a record amount ever offered for a Bundesliga player.
The 26-year-old England national team member O. Hargreaves spent 10 years in Bayern Munich, but after representing his country in the World Cup held in Germany the previous year, he expressed his dream to play in the English Premier League.
Shortly after that, Man Utd quickly started negotiations with Munich's club and made offers in the summer and in January when the winter transfer market opened. Bayern kept rejecting them until finally agreeing to sell the versatile safety at the end of this season.
O. Hargreaves, who suffered a leg injury at the beginning of this season and therefore only played in 9 matches for Bayern, is expected to sign a four-year contract with the newly crowned English champions, Man Utd.
His decade-long career in Germany ended in disappointment as Bayern finished in 4th place in the Bundesliga and lost all chances to compete in the prestigious UEFA Champions League next year.
Writing for the BBC website, O. Hargreaves admitted that "Bayern" club "can never afford to miss out on the UEFA Champions League tournament."
The sale of the English player is likely to be the first step in restructuring the team - club owner Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has already promised "brutal and merciless" changes.
Newspapers write that Bayern may use the money received from Hargreaves' sale to acquire the right-back of the London and Netherlands national team, Arjen Robben.
This summer, the Bavarian team will also bid farewell to retiring goalkeeper Mehmet Scholl, versatile Bosnian Hasan Salihamidzic, who is moving to Turin's Juventus, as well as Ali Karimi and Claudio Pizarro, whose contracts expired after the season.
