West Ham United have completed the signing of the Marseille forward Dimitri Payet for a fee believed to be £10.7m. The east London club announced on Friday afternoon that Payet, 28, has signed a five-year deal with a further one-year option and becomes the second major addition to the playing squad under their new manager, Slaven Bilic.
“West Ham really showed me that they wanted me to come, both the joint-chairmen [David Gold and David Sullivan] and the manager,” Payet told the club’s website.
“That’s very important for me. I was also keen to sign up to a clear project. West Ham’s is very interesting and matches perfectly with my ambitions.
“Firstly I spoke with the manager, who really wished for me to come here and had been watching me a lot. He made it clear that he wanted me to sign and that was important in my choice.
“I’m an attacking footballer and that they’re counting on me to help achieve that gives me a sense of responsibility. It’s true that it’s taken a little while but that’s normal – negotiations are like that. But now that it’s done, I’m very happy.”
The versatile Payet topped the Ligue 1 assist charts last season with 16 in 36 appearances, as well as scoring seven goals for a Marseille side who came fourth in Ligue 1 last season. He can play in a number of attacking positions, adding depth and variation to a frontline that was exposed by injuries and loss of form in the second half of last season.
Payet, who spent two seasons at Marseille after playing for Nantes, Saint-Étienne and Lille, has 15 caps for France and started in their most recent fixture, a 1-0 friendly defeat in Albania this month.
The arrival of Payet, who was born on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean, follows that of the Sampdoria midfielder Pedro Obiang.
West Ham’s first match of the 2015-16 season is a Europa League first qualifying round, first-leg fixture against the Andorran side Lusitans on Thursday.
