VfL Wolfsburg has signed Xaver Schlager of FC Red Bull Salzburg. The ÖFB U21 national player signs a contract with the German Bundesliga club until summer 2023.
The 21-year-old Schlager originally had a contract until summer 2021. The parties agreed not to disclose the transfer fee, and the exit clause is to amount to 15 million euros. Xaver Schlager after Marko Arnautovic, Kevin Wimmer and Aleksandar Dragovic would thus be the fourth most expensive transfer of an ÖFB professional in history.
“We are pleased that we can further strengthen our existing squad with Xaver Schlager. He is a young player hungry for success who can now take the next step in his career. Despite his young age, he already has some experience at an international level and, regardless of his sporting qualities, is a perfect match for VfL Wolfsburg,” said Wolfsburg’s Sports Director Marcel Schäfer.
“I’m very much looking forward to VfL Wolfsburg and the challenge of playing in the German Bundesliga,” Schlager is quoted in a broadcast. “I had a great and also successful time in Salzburg, for which I will always be grateful to the association. But now is the time for me to make a change. VfL Wolfsburg offers a professional, but also family environment and I am convinced that this is the best place for me to develop further.”
He continued: “I could learn a lot in Salzburg and have experienced a lot. Now I am faced with a new challenge, which I did not want to reject and which is very attractive and exciting.”
In his four professional years at Red Bull Salzburg Schlager played 107 compulsory games. Last season he scored 44 races in which he scored twelve scorer points. In the 2016/17 season he won the UEFA Youth League under coach Marco Rose. In Wolfsburg he becomes a player under Neo-Coach Oliver Glasner, who changed from LASK to the German Bundesliga. Wolfsburg, the sixth overall in the past Bundesliga season, is in the group phase of the UEFA Europa League and could slip into Lostopf 1.
The sport director of the bulls, Christoph Freund, was happy about Schlagers next career step. “We are very proud that another player who has lived through his entire football development with us has made the leap into the German Bundesliga,” Freund is quoted as saying.
“Just as Xaver grew into our team as a very young player, other youngsters now have the opportunity to follow in his footsteps. This is the path we have been following for many years and which has made us so successful. And it is precisely this path that we are continuing to pursue with perseverance and consistency.”
