Schalke announces signing of Alessandro Schopf

Alessandro Schopf's journey through German football is taking him to Veltins-Arena.

FC Schalke 04 signed Schopf on Thursday, as the Austrian midfielder joined the club from 1. FC Nurnberg in a transfer that's pending a medical and will keep him at Schalke until June 30, 2019.

(Courtesy: Schalke)

Schopf marks Schalke's second signing of the January transfer window, as Younes Belhanda joined the club on loan from Dynamo Kyiv on Tuesday.

Related: Schalke signs Younes Belhanda from Dynamo Kyiv on loan

"We are happy about the transfer," Horst Heldt, Schalke's sporting director, said. "Alessandro is a flexible midfielder with a lot of promise as he is still only 21 years old. He fits into our setup well."

After featuring at Austrian clubs SV Langenfeld and BNZ Tirol from 1999 to 2009, Schopf joined Bayern Munich's youth academy in November 2013 and went on to score 22 goals in 63 Regional League fixtures for the German behemoth's under-23 side. He then moved to Nurnberg at the start of the 2014-15 season and went on to tally eight goals and 10 assists through 51 appearances.