Official: Itakura leaves Schalke
Ko Itakura will not join Schalke 04 on a permanent basis.
Schalke 04 will not activate their purchase option for Ko Itakura to turn the defender's loan from Manchester City into a permanent move.
Citing financial constraints, the newly-promoted Bundesliga outfit announced the decision on Tuesday.
"Nobody had any doubts about the fact that Ko was one of our stand-out players on the pitch this season. We’d have loved to have him in our Bundesliga squad, but that wasn’t possible due to financial reasons,” said Schalke sporting director Rouven Schröder.
"We don’t want to beat around the bush. At this moment in time, when a lot of squad planning decisions still need to be made, we were unable to exercise the purchase option. The financial outlay was too large and would have exceeded our carefully-planned budgets.”