Khedira swaps Stuttgart for Madrid

Real Madrid CF can count on the services of midfielder Sami Khedira after the German international moved to the Spanish capital from VfB Stuttgart for an undisclosed fee thought to be about €12m.

The 23-year-old anchorman has accepted a five-year contract at the Santiago Bernabéu to become Madrid's third summer signing – Ángel di María and Pedro León already having joined new coach José Mourinho at the club.

Khedira caught the eye during Germany's run to the FIFA World Cup semi-finals in South Africa, as an ever-present in Joachim Löw's team and the scorer of the winning goal in the third-place play-off against Uruguay. Those exploits followed on from his success in captaining his country to glory in the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship in Sweden.

Stuttgart sporting director Fredi Bobic admitted that the Stuttgart academy product would be missed at the VfB Arena: "It's never great to lose a key player and someone who was close to the fans. But on the other hand we accept his wish to continue developing his career in Madrid. We wish him success for this new challenge."

Khedira had picked a fine time to break into the Stuttgart side – scoring four goals in 22 Bundesliga appearances during the club's 2006/07 German title-winning campaign. He now leaves Die Schwaben with career figures of 98 league games and 14 goals.

The Madrid-bound player missed Stuttgart's 3-2 victory at FK Molde in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League third qualifying round tie on Thursday. His new team will compete in the UEFA Champions League group stage as runners-up in last season's Spanish Liga.