LONDON, England -- Arsenal have agreed terms with Dinamo Zagreb to sign Croatia's Brazilian-born striker Eduardo Da Silva on a four-year contract, the Premier League club said on Monday.
Da Silva scored the first competitive goal at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium during a Champions League tie.
Dinamo's fee for the move, which is subject to a medical and comes a week after France striker Thierry Henry completed his transfer from Arsenal to Barcelona, was not disclosed.
Croatian media put the fee at 24 million euros ($32.60 million), exactly the sum Arsenal agreed with Barcelona for their former captain Henry.
Dinamo Zagreb sport director Zoran Mamic told Croatian state radio he could not disclose the figure, but said it was a record offer that the club could not turn down.
"This is the biggest ever transfer in Croatian football, inluding the period of the former Yugoslavia," he said.
The 24-year-old moved to Croatia from Brazil when he was 15 and took Croatian nationality in 2002.
He has made 12 appearances for his adopted country and scored seven goals, including a header against England in Croatia's 2-0 Euro 2008 qualifying win last October.
Da Silva also scored the first competitive goal at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium in a Champions League qualifier last season.
"I'm happy but at the same time also a bit sad. Sad because I'm leaving Dinamo, fellow players, the club and the town where I started my career and reached the status of a national squad player," Da Silva told reporters in the Austrian city of Kapfenberg where the club are training. "On the other hand I am happy and proud since it is really a big club, one of the biggest in the world," he added. E-mail to a friend
