The Belgium international striker has moved to Anfield after the Reds activated his £32.5 million release clause and becomes the club’s seventh signing of a busy summer.
Liverpool have confirmed the signing of Christian Benteke from Aston Villa, with the Belgian becoming the club’s second most expensive player ever at £32.5 million.
The Reds triggered Benteke’s big-money buy-out clause over the weekend and have now announced the deal after the player underwent medical tests with the club.
The 25-year-old is the latest player to move to Anfield in a busy summer, following Roberto Firmino, Danny Ings, James Milner, Nathaniel Clyne, Adam Bogdan and Joe Gomez.
Much of that outlay, including the £29m spent on Brazilian Firmino, has been offset by the £49m departure of Raheem Sterling to Manchester City.
Benteke moved to the Premier League from Genk in 2012 and hit the ground running, scoring 19 goals in the top flight.
He handed in a transfer request at the end of the campaign, however, only to withdraw it and sign a new contract.
The 2013-14 season represented a tougher challenge for the striker, and after scoring 10 league goals he ruptured his Achilles and missed last summer’s World Cup.
The Belgian struggled for large parts of last season as Villa laboured under Paul Lambert, but hit form under new boss Tim Sherwood and scored 11 of his 13 top-flight strikes in the latter weeks of the campaign.
The news is a blow for Villa, coming just days after Fabian Delph went back on his decision to stay with the club.
Having appeared set to move to Manchester City, Delph announced earlier in July that he would be staying at Villa Park.
But on Friday he was spotted in Manchester and it was quickly announced that he had indeed secured an £8 million move to the Etihad Stadium.
The post Great One!! Liverpool Announce Benteke Signing appeared first on Naijaloaded | Nigeria No. 1 Online Portal.
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