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THE HAGUE, August 2 (Xinhua) -- Ajax sold Polish striker Arek Milik for a club record transfer fee to Italian side Napoli, the Dutch soccer club announced on Tuesday.
The transfer fee is 32 million euros and could reach 33 million euros including bonuses, Ajax stated in a press release. His former club Bayer Leverkusen and his agent will according to the agreement reportedly also get part of the fee.
With the deal Ajax broke their own transfer fee record. The former record was for the transfers of Wesley Sneijder and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who both moved to Real Madrid for 27 million euros in 2007 and 2009 respectively. Luis Suarez left Ajax for Liverpool in 2011 for 26.5 million euros.
The 22-year-old Polish international Milik, who scored once for Poland at Euro 2016, had a contract until 2019 at Ajax. He arrived on loan from German club Bayer Leverkusen in 2014 and one year later Ajax lifted the purchase option of 2.8 million euros. In his first season Milik scored 11 times in 21 league matches and last season he produced 21 goals in 31 matches.
"Arek did a great job here," sportive director Marc Overmars said in a statement on the Ajax website. "His scoring percentage says it all. We wanted to keep him and had agreed he would not leave, but at that time different fees were offered. Napoli really wanted to have him and at a certain point we could not say no anymore. The transfer window is still open for a month so we have time to find a successor."
Milik signed a five-year deal at Napoli. The striker will have the heavy task of succeeding Argentinian forward Gonzalo Higuain, who left Napoli for Juventus for 90 million euros.
