Manchester City have suffered a blow in signing Holger Badstuber after Bayern Munich defender agreed a loan move to Schalke until the end of the season. His move is subjected to medical.
The German international played under Pep Guardiola when the current Citizens manager was in charge at the Allianz Arena. The former Barcelona boss wanted to reunite with his former player at the Etihad and was targeting a loan move in January.
In addition to this, newly appointed Swansea City manager Paul Clement, who was Carlo Ancelotti's assistant at Real Madrid and Bayern was also looking at the option of signing Badtsuber on a temporary move.
However, the versatile defender, who can play as a centre-back and left-back has snubbed advances from both City and the Welsh club in favour of a loan move to Schalke.
A statement on Bayern's official website read, "Holger Badstuber, 27, is moving to FC Schalke 04 on loan for the remainder of the season after an agreement was reached between Badstuber, his adviser, FC Bayern München and Schalke."
Badstuber has struggled with injuries since 2012 and missed the entire 2013/14 season as he was on the sidelines. He will be hoping to get regular playing time under his belt at Schalke in the second half of the 2016/17 campaign.
"I'm thankful that FC Bayern have complied with my request. I'd like to get some much-needed match practice at Schalke and I'm looking forward to my time in Gelsenkirchen," the player said.
Bayern chief Karl-Heinz Rummenigge also gave his thought on Badstuber's latest loan move. He said, "Holger deserves to play. He's been injured so often but now he's physically fit again and would like to play more games."
"That's why he asked us to allow him to go out on loan to Schalke, and we gladly agreed. We hope Holger will get plenty of minutes under his belt in the coming months, and we wish him all the best."
