World Cup star Mesut Ozil joins Real Madrid

Bremen turned down an offer from the Spanish giants on Friday but have now reached an agreement which satisfies their demands for a player who would have been available on a free transfer when his contract expired in 12 months.

The player, who was one of the stars of the World Cup in South Africa, will undergo a medical in the Spanish capital tomorrow.

The 21-year-old did not take part in the Bundesliga club's final training session ahead of tomorrow's Champions League clash with Sampdoria this afternoon.

Madrid also confirmed the deal, and Bremen's director of sport Klaus Allofs said: "We are respecting the player's wishes to take the next step in his career immediately."

Allofs had opened up new contract talks with the Germany international a year ago, but the player officially rejected the club's final offer prior to the World Cup.

From that moment, it was clear Bremen would be forced to sell the 21-year-old, who only had a year left to run on the three-year deal he signed when he arrived from Schalke in 2008, otherwise they would have lost him on a free transfer next summer.

Words to that effect from Ozil's father, who told Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper today that his son will be moving to Real Madrid "in any case", may have spurred Bremen on to accept Real's improved offer.

Allofs will also be glad to have resolved an issue which had threatened to overshadow tomorrow's crucial clash with Sampdoria.

"I am worried that we don't have enough peace and quiet ahead of the game on Wednesday," Allofs said at the weekend.

Coach Thomas Schaaf now also knows that he will not have a difficult team selection choice to make tomorrow night.

Had Ozil played in the Champions League qualifier, he would have been ruled out of appearing in the competition for another club this season, effectively ending any hope of the player moving on this summer, and Schaaf was facing a choice of whether to pick an important member of his squad, or leave him out in order not to jeopardise a potential transfer.

That transfer has now gone through, however, with Ozil, who played 71 times for Bremen, scoring 12 goals, now set to play in the Champions League for Real.

Ozil was a key member of the Germany squad which finished third at the World Cup in South Africa and his performances there will have convinced Real coach Jose Mourinho to make him his second signing from the Germany national team this summer after spending 14 million euros for Sami Khedira from Stuttgart.