After an uneasy start to the season for Schalke and for Nabil Bentaleb, there were questions as to whether the German club would pick up the Algerian’s purchase option at the end of the season. The Tottenham loanee’s recent play has now clearly convinced them that he’s worth signing.

Bild are reporting that Schalke will pay the agreed fee of €19 million (around £17 million) to Spurs to sign Bentaleb permanently.

Here are the relevant quotes in German:

Das 3:0 gegen Mainz war auch die große Show von Doppel-Torschütze Nabil Bentaleb. Schon in Augsburg (1:1) traf der Algerier mit seinem linken Hammer, ist mit drei Saison-Treffern jetzt bester Königsblau-Knipser. Und die Fans dürfen sich noch auf viele weitere Tore ihres neuen Helden freuen. Der Mittelfeld-Motor ist bis Saisonende von Tottenham ausgeliehen. Schalke besitzt eine Kaufoption über 19 Mio Euro – und schon das Sagen über Bentalebs Zukunft. BILD erfuhr: Manager Christian Heidel (53) hat neben den Ablöse-Modalitäten auch einen Vier-Jahres-Vertrag mit dem Algerier ausgehandelt, der bereits unterschrieben ist. Bis zum Frühjahr kann Heidel die Option ziehen – und Bentaleb so lange an Königsblau binden.

Don’t speak German? That’s totally fine. Google translate, and friends who understand German, also point out that the article says a new 4-year-contract between Bentaleb and Schalke has already been agreed upon.

Schalke and Nabil endured a rough start that had them down in the Bundesliga’s relegation zone at the beginning of the season. But it appears they’ve turned things around, in large part thanks to the play of Bentaleb. The club from Gelsenkirchen have won 4 of their last 5 games in the league.

Their last match was an impressive 3-0 win over Mainz, in which Bentaleb scored twice. He’s already got three goals on the season, two more than his total number of career goals at Tottenham. Nabil is thriving playing further up the field and wearing the number 10 shirt.

Bentaleb is clearly a talented player, and some Spurs fans may have still been holding out hope that he would return to North London after his loan. However, an apparent clash with Mauricio Pochettino and recent comments about English fans have effectively shut that door.

But £17 million is a nice sum to receive for a player who isn’t in Poch’s plans. That money can be re-invested elsewhere, and Bentaleb can enjoy playing his football in Germany. Seems like a win-win situation to me.

We’ll always have memories of his goal against Newcastle and the exciting/unpredictable midfield pairing that he formed with Ryan Mason two seasons ago.