Europa League side Eintracht Frankfurt are on the verge of signing Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner after holding final talks with the controversial Denmark forward, the Bundesliga outfit have confirmed.
“It’s up to us now. There are no problems with Arsenal, but we need to check whether it is financially feasible,” Eintracht’s director of sport Bruno Huebner told Frankfurt paper Neue Presse.
The 25-year-old is reported to earn four million euros per season with the Gunners, a figure Frankfurt, who finished sixth in last season’s Bundesliga, are unlikely to match as they look to add the 1.94m-tall striker to their attack.
Frankfurt struggled up front last season, their first back in the Bundesliga, with midfielder Alex Maier finishing as their top scorer with 16 goals.
The Scandinavian does not come without baggage: he has a taste for fast cars and a habit of attracting headlines for the wrong reasons.
“Within the next five years, I will be one of the best strikers in the world. Trust me, it will happen,” said Bendtner, who has scored 21 goals in 51 appearances for Denmark, back in 2009, words he has failed to match.
In March, Bendtner was banned for three months and fined 842,000 Danish kroner (US$145,000, 113,000 euros) after driving against the direction of traffic and was found to be well over the legal limit by police, which saw him thrown out of the national team.
“This is the worst day of my life,” Bendtner said at the time, having also lost his licence for speeding briefly in 2012 while in September 2009 he wrote off a £160,000 Aston Martin (185,957 euros, US$238,379, £86,000).
Having been caught with his trousers literally down at a nightclub in May 2009, Bendtner also landed a fine of 100,000 euros (US £128,228, £86,000) at Euro 2012 when he dropped his shorts to reveal the name of a betting firm during a game.
Injuries and lack of opportunities have seen Bendtner loaned to Birmingham, Sunderland and Juventus having joined Arsenal in 2005, which has drawn some ridicule.
“Since 2005, Bendtner has scored 41 league goals. This means an average 5.1 per season. I can do that even now. And I’m 46!” Frankfurt’s former Norway striker Jan-Aage Fjortoft wrote on Twitter.
Eintracht close in on bad-boy Bendtner
