Granit Xhaka, the former Arsenal captain and recent Bundesliga champion, was today officially unveiled as Sunderland’s latest acquisition.
The £17.3m transfer from Bayer Leverkusen marks a sensational return to the Premier League for Xhaka, just two years after he departed English football to seek a new challenge and found unprecedented success in Germany.
Under Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen, Xhaka was reinvented, playing a deeper, more controlled midfield role and achieved an historic unbeaten domestic double in the 2023-24 season, lifting both the Bundesliga title and the DFB-Pokal.
and culminated in his 16th-place finish in the Ballon d’Or voting in 2024.
For Xhaka, now 32, the answer lies in a desire for a “new challenge” and a “big project,” as he outlined in his first interview as a Black Cat.
“I’m very proud to be here,” Xhaka declared.
“When I spoke to the club, I was excited and I felt the energy, and the mentality that all the people and players have. It’s exactly what I wanted, and I have a very good feeling. We are back to where this club needs to be, and we want to stay here to write our own history.
I feel that I’m ready to help the team with my experience but with quality as well.”
He added that he is looking forward to settling in and adapting quickly.
Sunderland’s sporting director, Kristjaan Speakman, expressed his delight at the signing.
“We’re delighted to welcome Granit and his family to Sunderland,” Speakman stated. “His arrival is a significant endorsement of our ambition and our desire to build a team our supporters can be proud of in the Premier League.
His accomplishments and quality need little introduction – he’s a player of the highest calibre on and off the field, who we feel is the perfect match to the profile required in our team.”
The Black Cats, returning to the top flight for the first time since 2017, have made a clear statement of intent in the transfer market, with Xhaka being their seventh major signing of the summer.
Sunderland will be hoping he can replicate the transformative impact he had in Germany and lead them to Premier League safety.
His journey back to England promises to be one of the most compelling story lines of the upcoming season.
Catch Granit Xhaka’s return to the Premier League free on TV47,The Home of Untold Stories, starting 16th August 2025.
By Edwin Githinji
