Dortmund Stars Turned Down Lucrative Premier League Moves

Borussia Dortmund stars Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang turned down significantly better offers from the Premier League in order to sign for the Bundesliga giants this summer.

The German club fended off strong interest from Liverpool to secure the signature of Armenian international Mkhitaryan in June to pay a club record fee of £24m for the attacking midfielder, after signing striker Aubameyang from St Etienne who had also attracted strong interest from Newcastle United.

But having been unable to compete with English clubs in terms of a wage package, Dortmund relied on the club's sporting appeal to convince the duo to sign for them and reject the overtures of the Premier League.

Dortmund's sporting director Michael Zorc was quizzed on the club's marquee summer signings by newspaper Die Welt, telling the publication that both Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang chose their moves to Germany for the right reasons.

"We were relatively sure they (Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang) had a good mentality" Zorc said. "It was also an indication when they chose us despite having significantly more lucrative offers from England. They deliberately chose the sporting perspective."

Gabon international Aubameyang got his career in the Bundesliga off to a flying start by scoring a hat trick on his league debut against Augsburg.

Having picked up an injury shortly after his arrival at the Westfalenstadion, Mkhitaryan's start was slightly delayed, but has played in the club's last two league games as Dortmund have collected maximum points from their opening three games.

The Armenian, who will help to fill the void left by Mario Gotze, now of Bayern Munich, revealed upon signing for Dortmund that a move to the Champions League semi-finalists was always at the top of his priority list.

"Liverpool have a great past," Mkhitaryan said, speaking last month. "But Borussia Dortmund has a great present. I made this decision with my heart."