West Ham United have signed the Belgium international Arne Engels from Celtic in a deal worth £22m, a fee the club say is a record paid by an EFL Championship side. It surpasses the £17.5m Ipswich Town paid a year ago for the Norway forward Sindre Walle Egeli. Engels, 22, has signed a five-year contract at the London Stadium.
Engels began his career at Club Brugge before joining Augsburg, then moved to Celtic from the Bundesliga club in August 2024. He won back-to-back Scottish Premiership titles in Glasgow and has been capped four times by Belgium. He is West Ham's fourth summer signing, following the midfielder Keiber Lamadrid, the defender Joel Veltman and the winger Manor Solomon.
West Ham were relegated from the Premier League in May and open their first Championship campaign since 2012 away at Burnley on Sunday, a match that comes too soon for Engels to feature. He is instead expected to make his debut in the London Stadium derby against Charlton Athletic on Saturday, 22 August, and can play in central midfield, at right-back or on the right wing.
West Ham's director of player recruitment, Nils Koppen, said: "Arne is a player we have been tracking for some time as a key target. For a player who is still very young with his best years in front of him, he has very good experience and has established himself at a big club, showing consistency and confidence." Engels said: "It's a really nice project to come into. To try to go back to the Premier League. That's the big goal."