Move to German giants Bayern

promising players in the A-League, having scored five goals and created eight assists during a breakout 2018-19 season where he was a regular starter in the Phoenix midfield, the interest from a major European club such as Bayern has still come as a huge shock, even to those closest to the four-cap All White.

‘‘He’s a special player. He has been since he was seven or eight years old, when he turned up to our environment. But if someone asked me if I saw him playing for Bayern Munich one day I would still say no,’’ his former Onehunga Sports coach, Hiroshi Miyazawa, told Stuff last week.

‘‘It’s just that Bayern Munich the club is very special.

‘‘They can sign anyone in the world if they want to, but they choose to sign Sarpreet, which means a lot.’’

Singh was granted permission by the Phoenix to fly to Germany last week to finalise the dream move.

After being shown around the club’s facilities, he underwent a medical and linked up with his new team-mates at a pre-season training camp in Austria.

‘‘I always knew I wanted to come here and make the deal happen,’’ Singh said.

‘‘It’s pretty difficult to turn down an offer from Bayern Munich.

‘‘You look at the facilities here, both at the youth campus and with the first team and it’s unbelievable.

‘‘You can only get better as a player being in this environment for the next three years.

‘‘That’s what I want; to develop and become a better player, keep improving and keep learning.’’

The Phoenix will pocket an undisclosed transfer fee from the deal, which is understood to be larger than what they received when Nathan Burns joined FC Tokyo in 2015 and when Jon McKain moved to Al-Nassr in 2010, the only two previous occasions when they have managed to sell a player to another club.

‘‘We can’t talk about the actual details of the transfer fee but it’s a solid transfer fee,’’ Phoenix general manager David Dome said.

‘‘It’s the biggest in the club’s history so it’s really positive for us as a club and shows how good of an investment Sarpreet has been for the club.’’