FC Barcelona made another big move as they finalized a deal to acquire defender Thomas Vermaelen on a £15-million transfer agreement with Arsenal.

Vermaelen, who passed a medical on Saturday and was introduced to Barca fans on Sunday, signed a five-year deal, the club announced in a statement on their official website.

"Thomas Vermaelen is officially a Barca player after signing a five year deal at the Club this morning. Vermaelen was accompanied at the signing by Club President Josep Maria Bartomeu and sporting vice-president Jordi Mestre," FC Barcelona said in a statement.

Sources said that Manchester United also made a strong push to acquire Vermaelen, but the Red Devils backed out of the talk after Arsenal pushed for the inclusion of another player in the deal.

The 28-year-old knows that he will be facing tough competition at Camp Nou, but he insisted that moving to Barcelona was not a hard decision to make.

"I am very happy to be here," Vermaelen said during the introductory press conference via Marca.com. "It's a dream move and a great challenge to be here. I can't wait to train and play with the best players in the world, which will make me a better footballer. Barca are one of the best teams in the world, it wasn't a difficult decision to come."

Barcelona will have to wait, though, before having the Belgium international in their training sessions as the club confirmed that Vermaelen has not yet recovered from the hamstring injury he sustained during the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Vermaelen, who was also sidelined by injuries last season with his former club, is confident that he will recover quickly from the injury, saying that he will start from scratch in the new chapter of his career.

"It's not fun watching from the sidelines because of injury. I want to play. I'm going to start from scratch and I hope to get plenty of playing time here," Vermaelen said. "I was injured during the World Cup. I haven't trained with Arsenal so I've got a few weeks to get back to full fitness and we'll talk to the physios to find out how long I'll take to recover."

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