Tottenham Hotspur have signed forward Timo Werner on loan from RB Leipzig until the end of the season, subject to international clearance, with the north Londoners having the option of making the deal permanent in the summer.
The 27-year-old Germany international, who will wear the No 16 shirt, is no stranger to the Premier League, having spent the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons playing for Spurs’ London rivals Chelsea.
"First of all, I’m very happy to be here, I’ve joined a very, very big club," Werner told the club's official website.
"We have often played against each other already – it doesn’t matter if I was playing for Chelsea or Leipzig, they were always big, big games to play against Spurs – and now I’m happy to be part of the team at the Club and I’m really looking forward to it."
It's Timo time. pic.twitter.com/cRB9mcWErH
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) January 9, 2024
Werner scored 10 goals and assisted nine in his 56 Premier League appearances for Chelsea, and was part of the squad that won the UEFA Champions League in 2020/21.
Spurs head coach Ange Postecoglou has moved quickly to bolster his team’s attacking options. Captain Son Heung-min is absent on Asian Cup duty with South Korea and may not be back until the middle of February.
Werner said that Postecoglou had a big influence on his decision to make the move to north London.
"A lot of things attracted me here – first of all, the talk with the manager," he added. "I thought it was a really good talk, he gave me straight away the feeling that I need to join a club, what I want to feel when you talk to a manager.
"Also the tactics and the style, how he wants to play, how he lets the team play. For me I thought straight away that it fits perfectly.
"The people who have followed me a little bit in the Premier League, they know that I can bring my speed, that I can be a threat for the opponents so that’s what I want to bring into the team."
Werner’s career to date
A product of Stuttgart’s academy, Werner became the club’s youngest ever player and youngest goalscorer aged 17 during his debut season in 2013/14.
He moved to RB Leipzig in June 2016, where he scored 95 goals in all competitions over four seasons.
He was an integral part of the Germany squad that won the 2017 Confederations Cup, winning the Golden Boot, while he has since taken his tally to 24 goals in 57 international matches.
Werner struck 28 league goals for Leipzig in 2019/20, earning a move to Chelsea in the summer of 2020, but he struggled for goals and got a reputation for missing big chances. The Champions League triumph was the undoubted highlight before he rejoined Leipzig in the summer of 2022.
Werner has scored 18 goals in 54 appearances back at the Red Bull Arena, winning the German Cup and German Super Cup.
He could make his Spurs debut this Sunday, 14 January, at Manchester United.
