Arsenal signing Sokratis Papastathopoulos reveals Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan persuaded him to join Gunners
Greece ace received phone calls from his former Borussia Dortmund team-mates urging him to follow them to North London
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ARSENAL have Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan to thank for the capture of Sokratis Papastathopoulos.
The Greece defender was a Borussia Dortmund team-mate with Aubameyang for five years and Mkhitaryan for three.
And persistent phone calls from the pair convinced Sokratis, 30, to follow them to North London.
He said: "I spoke to them a lot of times.
"They said the best [thing] about this club is that it's one big family and they called me also - not every day but a lot of times - to come here.
"It's a bit strange [playing with them at a second club] but it's also very beautiful that I come into the team and have two players I was with for a lot of years and I know very well."
Arsenal's new head of recruitment Sven Mislintat has now signed Sokratis twice having brought him to Dortmund in 2013.
The centre-back's former boss Thomas Tuchel claimed Sokratis is "obsessed" with defending.
Sokratis, who has encouraged fans to call him "Papa", said: "Of course [I am].
"I think that the defender has to first defend, to protect the goal, and after if he can help up front it's good. But first of all is to defend.
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"I'm a normal defender. I like to defend, I like that my team doesn’t concede goals.
"I will do everything to help achieve this."