Schalke have sealed the season-long loan signing of Nabil Bentaleb with a view to completing a permanent £17million deal for the Spurs midfielder.
Tottenham confirmed the initial temporary arrangement, while the player tweeted, 'delighted to have signed for Schalke 04 new beginnings'.
The Bundesliga club's sporting director Christian Heidel, who revealed Bentaleb had passed his medical at the Veltins-Arena last Thursday, said: 'We're pleased that Nabil Bentaleb has decided to join us. 'We've been working on this transfer for the past six weeks.
'He's an aggressive, tough-tackling midfielder who further increases the options for our coach '
The Algeria international, who started all of his country's games at the 2014 World Cup, made his Spurs debut under Tim Sherwood in a 3-2 win at Southampton in December 2013.