Player heading to Qatar after late Crystal Palace transfer interest – Changed his mind over past week

In the final week of the summer transfer window, Crystal Palace showed up as a potential destination for Julian Draxler.

Since the midfielder had no place at Paris Saint Germain, it was said the Eagles were a way out for him, as he could terminate his contract with the French club and move to London for free.

Crystal Palace didn’t succeed, though, and according to Sky Deutschland journalist Florian Plettenberg, Draxler is now on his way to Qatar, a couple of weeks after it was said he wouldn’t join Palace.

The German reporter there’s been a ‘turnaround’ in the last few hours, because he had recently turned down an offer from Al-Ahli and chose to stay in Europe, informing all sides about his decision.

Draxler then ‘changed plans’, and on Wednesday evening, ‘decided’ to join Al-Ahli. He’s set to sign a contract until 2025, and the Qatari club will ‘probably’ pay PSG a fee worth €20m.

With the rumours from August conditioning his transfer to Crystal Palace to the termination of his contract with the French club, it now seems that was indeed a difficult task for the Eagles, who needed to offer a decent amount to get a deal done.