Ujah to join Werder Bremen

Cologne's Nigeria striker, Anthony Ujah, will be wearing green not red next season after the club confirmed on Tuesday morning that the 24-year-old striker has decided to join Werder Bremen at the end of the current campaign. The striker has signed a deal through 2019 after a release-clause, included in the striker's contract, enabled the move.

"Negotiations with Anthony were intense and lengthy, and we made sure we had a complete picture. He's quick, dangerous in front of goal and can continue his development with us," said Werder Bremen's sporting director, Thomas Eichin. Ujah has likely been signed as a replacement for the departing Davie Selke, who is joining Red Bull Leipzig at the end of the season for 8 million euros ($8.9 million).

Ujah, Cologne's top goalscorer this season (10), joined Cologne on loan in 2012 from Mainz before signing permanently last season for 2 million euros. So far in his Cologne career, the striker has made 100 appearances for Cologne in Germany's top two divisions and the German Cup, scoring 36 goals and assisting 10.

With his departure, the "Billy Goats" are short of striking options. Loan-signing Deyverson will return to his parent club at the end of the season, but 23-year-old Simon Zoller will return from a loan spell at Kaiserslautern. Austrian starlet Philipp Hosiner, who was rumored to have been close to joining the club during the winter transfer window, is being touted as a replacement for the departing Ujah.

There are three games left in the Bundesliga season and Cologne is 11th in the table, six points clear of relegation.