Arabian Gulf League: Valencia striker Valdez joins Al Jazira

Paraguayan, who left training camp in Germany to negotiate and sign deal on Tuesday night, completes foreign player quartet. Amith Passela reports.

Valencia's Paraguayan striker Nelson Valdez.

ABU DHABI // Nelson Valdez, the Paraguayan international striker, has become Al Jazira's fourth foreign player for the 2013/14 Arabian Gulf League season.

The club on Tuesday night confirmed the goalscorer signed a two-year deal with the Abu Dhabi club in the Spanish city and will arrive in the capital on Wednesday.

The striker will now join up the former Spain Under 21 coach Luis Milla, and several media outlets in Spain reported on Tuesday that the deal would cost €3 million (Dh14.45m).

A source at Jazira had earlier said the club were close to making a new signing and that was confirmed late on Tuesday. Jazira also said Valdez turned down offers from clubs in the United States, Germany, Italy and Turkey.

Valdez’s move completes the Abu Dhabi club’s foreign quartet, which also includes the recent signing of Abdelaziz Barrada, the Moroccan midfielder who arrived from another Spanish club, Getafe, for a fee of €10m.

Valdez will replace the Brazilian forward Fernandinho, who joined Jazira last season on a three-year deal but failed to live up to expectations. He is now being linked with a transfer to Santos in Brazil.

Barrada replaced Matias Delgado, the Argentine midfielder, who has returned to former club Basel in the Swiss Super League.

Ricardo Oliveira, the Brazilian striker, and Shin Hyung-min, the South Korean defender, are the two other foreign players.

Jazira will begin their pre-season training on July 24 and are expected to have their full squad in place by that time. Valdez, who has 66 caps and 12 international goals, made his name in the Bundesliga where he spent eight seasons at Werder Bremen and Borussia Dortmund. He won the Bundesliga title with Bremen in 2003/04.

Since then, he has played for Hercules in Spain and Rubin Kazan in Russia. Last season he played for Valencia who finished fifth in the Spanish Primera Liga.

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