Schalke striker Franco Di Santo apologised for the nature of his departure from Bundesliga rivals Werder Bremen, with fans unhappy with the Argentine s exit.
Di Santo made his debut in a Schalke shirt in a 0-0 draw with Porto in their penultimate pre-season friendly before their Bundesliga campaign begins on August 14 at Werder.
The 26-year-old tried to smooth the waters with Werder who made €6million on the player after he came to Germany as a free agent after three seasons at Wigan after the hit-out at the Heidewaldstadion.
Bremen director Thomas Eichin was quoted as saying he was anything but impressed by the swiftness of Di Santo s departure, which will make for an interesting reception if Di Santo runs out at the Weserstadion in little over two weeks time.
I understand as a supporter you always want to keep the players you like and I understand that situation, Di Santo said.
But on the other hand, I did a lot of good things for Werder. I came for free and now they have six million. If it s enough or not, it is six million.
But I really understand the supporters. It is a job and with a job you always want to improve every single one of you, not just football players, in every single job in the world.
If they are angry, I can only say sorry for that. But I am really, really thankful for Werder Bremen to give me the opportunity to be here right now.
Di Santo said he was pleased with his output on debut, adding Andre Breitenreiter s men are capable of competing for trophies with the DFB-Pokal win in 2010-11 Schalke s only major success in a decade.
I am really happy. I think because of the performance of the team we deserved to win the game and personally I tried to do my best, he said of Schalke s pre-season outing.
I can t say if it was perfect or not, but I am happy.
I expect what every single team like Schalke expects fight for titles and do our best as a team and as players, because it is one of the biggest teams in Germany, because I have the chance to play in the Europa League and that s it.
