Hertha Berlin have brought Sami Khedira back to the Bundesliga after more than a decade away, hopeful the World Cup winner will help lead the ambitious club to bigger and better things.
The 33-year-old former Germany midfielder joins from Juventus, Hertha said on the last day of the winter transfer period.
Hertha did not give the length of Khedira’s contract nor any other financial details of the deal.
Khedira, who won the World Cup with Germany in 2014, also reportedly had offers from England, but he joins big-spending Hertha despite their struggles in the Bundesliga.
Only goal difference is keeping Hertha out of the relegation zone after 19 rounds.
“I know his leadership qualities and so am very happy that we now have him under contract at Hertha,” said the club’s new sporting director, Arne Friedrich, who played with Khedira for Germany at the 2010 World Cup.
Hertha were targeting European qualification in their second season since investor Lars Windhorst pledged to back them to the tune of 374 million euros ($A589m) in June 2019.
Khedira rose to prominence at Stuttgart, winning a Bundesliga title in 2007, then joined Real Madrid in 2010.
He spent five seasons at the Spanish giants before he moved to Juventus in 2015.
Khedira has barely played during the past 12 months due to injuries and an operation for a heart issue in February 2019.
His last competitive appearance for Juve was on June 12 in a cup tie against Milan. His previous appearance was in November 2019.
“I feel very good physically and would like to use the experience gained in recent years to help the team and lead Hertha BSC to greater sporting success,” said Khedira, who could make his club debut against Bayern Munich on Friday.
Hertha also signed 24-year-old Serbian winger Nemanja Radonjic on loan with an option to buy from Marseille.
Bayern sent young talents Chris Richards and Joshua Zirkzee out on loan, to Hoffenheim and Italian top-flight strugglers Parma respectively.
Union Berlin signed 22-year-old Croatian forward Petar Musa on loan from Czech champions Slavia Prague while Eintracht Frankfurt snared the highly rated 18-year-old Turkish forward Ali Akman from Bursaspor.