Rumour: Blazing Bundesliga star linked with Liverpool to join Schalke

Bayer Leverkusen’s Sidney Sam will not be moving to the Premier League, contrary to reports, as he has agreed to join Schalke.

Sam was targeted by Liverpool but the Mirror report today that the attacker is to leave Leverkusen and sign for German club Schalke.

The 25-year-old contract was set to expire at the end of the season so Schalke moved swiftly to secure him on a pre-contract agreement.

Sam will likely to be picked for the German World Cup squad in the summer by Joachim Low who is a fan of Sam and used him to effect against England in a recent friendly at Wembley.

It is thought Schalke have moved in on Sam as an early replacement for Julian Draxler, who is expected to depart at some point in 2014.

Arsenal are said to be the frontrunners for Draxler who is linked with most of Europe’s top clubs and would command a fee of €45 million, which is in fact, his release clause.

Now with Sam to join in the summer, Arsenal may be willing to make the first move on Draxler to get ahead of the competition.