Ernest Poku will spend this season on loan at Besiktas, the Turkish club have announced through their official channels. If certain criteria are met, the 22-year-old forward will join permanently from Bayer Leverkusen after this season.
The move had been on the cards for a while. On Tuesday evening, Poku was already absent from training with the German club. BILD then reported that he had also already said goodbye to his team-mates.
It is now official. According to the aforementioned German newspaper, the obligatory purchase option involves a fee of around €25 million.
Leverkusen could therefore make a substantial profit on Poku after barely a year. The German top club signed the winger from AZ last summer for €10 million. Poku signed a contract at the BayArena until mid-2030 at the time.
Over the past few days, a move to Turkey suddenly gathered pace. Initially, Fiorentina appeared to be in a strong position to sign Poku. That transfer ultimately failed to get off the ground, after which Besiktas made their interest clear and have now landed him.
Last season, the former AZ player made 45 official appearances for Bayer Leverkusen across the Bundesliga, Champions League and DFB-Pokal. In those matches, he registered five goals and eight assists.
After just one year, Poku's stay in Germany has already come to a temporary end. Besiktas are the Netherlands youth international's second foreign club after Bayer Leverkusen.