With record from Blues to Arsenal
Kai Havertz changes after a strange transfer breakdown
06/28/2023, 9:31 p.m
Kai Havertz played for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge for three years. The national team’s offensive player is now leaving the Blues and moving to local rivals Arsenal in London. A red jersey awaits him there. His time with the Gunners begins with a curious mishap.
National player Kai Havertz remains in London. The former Leverkusen player is leaving Chelsea after three years, but only moves a few kilometers to the northeast of the British capital. The 24-year-old will play for Arsenal in the future. The club announced this in the evening. The runner-up in the Premier League pays around 75 million euros, making Havertz the most expensive German player. In total, Havertz achieved transfer proceeds of 155 million euros from his two transfers. A German record and over 50 million euros more than that of the previous leader of this list, Leroy Sané.
“I’m so happy to be part of such a great club,” Havertz said in a video from his new club. This was already circulating on the Internet long before it was announced. Apparently it was accidentally put online for a short time without the transfer having been officially announced. “The mentality of the team is very high and that was one of the reasons why it was so difficult to play against Arsenal,” said the 37-cap international, who will also be number 29 for the Gunners. “I love wearing her in a red jersey again,” he said.
Lothar Matthäus had high hopes
Arsenal qualified for the Champions League as runners-up last season. For a long time, coach Mikel Arteta’s team was even on a master class, but in the end they couldn’t hold their own against Manchester City. For Havertz, the move to local rivals is also a personal restart. The 24-year-old had lost his way recently. According to a German legend, he even planned to be crowned world footballer.
“If Havertz can maintain this high level, with this ease, cleverness, presence on the pitch and goal threat, then he could eventually become my successor as world footballer,” said Lothar Matthäus before the 2019/2020 season. But the national player did not want to succeed. Currently he is far from this award. Even in the expert favor in Germany, he was long overtaken by Bayern star Jamal Musiala.
Crucial goals for the Blues
After moving to Chelsea in the midst of the pandemic, Havertz had become alienated from his new environment. In his first year in the English Premier League, the best league in the world, he only made 18 appearances in the starting XI. “I came to London during the Covid years, and that was maybe good for me. I had my teething problems, booing from the fans would certainly have been tough in the first six months,” said the international of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” this March .
But it was completely different in the Champions League. There he was a regular player in the team that was coached by Thomas Tuchel from the knockout phase. In the final against Manchester City on May 29, 2021, he scored the only goal and secured the Blues their second premier league title. In the following final of the Club World Cup he again scored the decisive goal. He scored a penalty in the 117th minute and secured the 2-1 win over Palmeiras.
Recently, however, Havertz was no longer undisputed at Chelsea. While his seven league goals were enough to top the club’s internal goalscoring list, they didn’t brighten up a disastrous year. The team, reinforced by the new owner consortium around US billionaire Todd Boehly with insane sums, missed all goals, needed several coaches and will not play internationally in the coming season. During his time at Stamford Bridge, the man from Aachen played a total of 139 competitive games. He scored 32 goals and prepared 15 more.
The record player Kai Havertz
With the transfer fee of around 75 million, Havertz has catapulted himself to first place in the list of German players with the highest overall transfer revenues. Added to the 80 million euros that Chelsea paid Bayer Leverkusen in 2020, he now has 155 million euros in transfer earnings. From fifth place, he jumps past Julian Draxler, Timo Werner, André Schürrle and Leroy Sané.
In an international comparison, however, Havertz is not yet in the top 10. The German international is just ahead of Bayern defender Matthijs de Ligt in 13th place. Until the current record holder Romelu Lukaku, however, it is almost 180 million euros. The Belgian forward sits just ahead of Neymar at €333.36m. The Brazilian still holds the record for the most expensive single transfer with the €220m paid by Paris Saint-Germain to Barcelona in the summer of 2017.
Only one player from the top 10 with the highest total transfer earnings has meanwhile played in the Bundesliga. Borussia Dortmund benefited from Barcelona’s plight after Neymar’s departure in the summer of 2017. The record runner-up received 135 million euros including all bonus payments for the French Ousmane Dembélé. The now 27-year-old winger brings it to a total of 170 million euros. That’s enough for ninth place. For Havertz, this is not desirable in the next few years. He wants to leave his footsteps at Arsenal first.