Draxler leaves Schalke for Wolfsburg in record deal

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany international Julian Draxler has left his home club Schalke 04 after 14 years to join VfL Wolfsburg on a five-year contract in a record transfer for the Ruhr valley club, Schalke sports director Horst Heldt said on Monday. The talented 21-year-old World Cup winner, a long-time target for Italy's Juventus, became Schalke's biggest transfer ever in a deal worth 35 million euros, according to media reports. "There were two reasons why we agreed to this deal," Heldt said in a statement. "We will not comment on transfer details but can say that it is the transfer with the highest revenues generated in the history of our club. "We also met the specific wishes of Julian to change clubs." The midfielder joined Schalke's youth team as a boy in 2001 and made his debut as a 17-year-old in 2011, playing 119 Bundesliga games and scoring 18 goals. Wolfsburg, who have plenty of cash after selling Kevin De Bruyne for a reported 75 million euros to Manchester City and Ivan Perisic to Inter Milan for another 20 million, have also brought in central defender Dante from Bayern Munich as they prepare for the Champions League group stage. "Signing Julian was our wish and through the transfer of Kevin De Bruyne we were able to realise it," Wolfsburg CEO Klaus Allofs said. "We are happy he chose Wolfsburg and opted to stay in the Bundesliga and we are convinced he will develop further." Wolfsburg said they had also sold attacking midfielder Aaron Hunt to Hamburg SV, where the 28-year-old signed a three-year deal. The Wolves were Bundesliga runners-up last season and won the German Cup. (Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Ed Osmond)