Benteke joins Crystal Palace from Liverpool

Crystal Palace have completed the signing of striker Christian Benteke from Liverpool.

The Eagles have broken their transfer record to land the Belgian in a deal which could be worth up to £32million.

Benteke, 25, has penned a four-year contract with Alan Pardew’s side.

“I’m very happy to commit my future to Crystal Palace and I’m looking forward to meeting the manager, the players and the staff,” said the 26-cap Belgium international.

“I feel really happy that the deal has been done and now I can look forward.”

Palace have been chasing Benteke all summer and finally got their man after tabling an offer of £27m, plus potential add-ons of £5m, earlier this week.

The move comfortably dwarfs Palace’s previous record purchase, set earlier this summer when they bought Andros Townsend from Newcastle for £13m.

Benteke is the south London club’s fourth signing of the summer, following Townsend, James Tomkins and Steve Mandanda to Selhurst Park.

He was keen to make the move having endured a miserable 12 months at Liverpool.

After joining the Merseyside club from Aston Villa in a £32.5m deal last summer, he struggled to make any impact at Anfield and departs having scored just nine Premier League goals in 29 appearances.

Palace will hope Benteke can reproduce the form he showed at Villa, where he netted 42 goals in 82 Premier League starts.

Speaking of the protracted move for the hitman on Friday, manager Alan Pardew said: ”He’s someone I know very, very well because I wanted to take him to Newcastle. I thought he’d be a fantastic fit for that club. He got the move to Liverpool and it hasn’t quite worked out.

”For us, we need to get him back to doing what he does best. His style of play, the way he feeds off crosses. He’ll enjoy that with the wide players we have.”