Official: Shanghai Shenhua sign Chelsea's Nicolas Anelka

The former Real Madrid and Arsenal striker will leave the Blues during the January transfer window to join the Chinese outfit on a two-year contract

Chinese Super League (CSL) club Shanghai Shenhua have announced they have signed Chelsea's French striker Nicolas Anelka on a two-year deal.

Shenhua, who have been in discussions with Anelka for the past few weeks, confirmed on their website on Monday that the 32-year-old had agreed to join them from January 2012. The Chinese club opted not to provide the financial details of the contract in the statement, although some media reports have previously claimed the contract is worth approximately £200,000 (€235,000) per week.

However, Shenhua spokesperson Ma Yue denied such rumours, telling AFP: "I cannot confirm his salary at the moment. I can just say the final amount could be different from £200,000."

Speaking on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, Shenhua skipper Yu Tao said: “It’s impossible not to be excited by this – a warm welcome to our new team-mate!”

Anelka, who was also chased by English Championship outfit West Ham and MLS club Montreal Impact, joins Shanghai after falling down the pecking order at Chelsea under Andre Villas-Boas.

The French striker was due to come out of contract at Stamford Bridge in the European summer and had a transfer request accepted by the Blues earlier this month.

Shenhua, who are owned by the enigmatic Zhu Jun, finished the 2011 CSL in 11th and haven't won the Chinese title since 2003.

The Shanghai outfit have also been in discussions with former Fulham and Bordeaux coach Jean Tigana about taking over as the club's new boss.

Anelka's signing is arguably the biggest in Chinese football history, but comes following Guangzhou Evergrande's major transfer expenditure in the past 12 months which led the club to becoming 2011 CSL champions.

Guangzhou made global headlines in May when they signed Argentine Dario Conca on a contract which reportedly made him the world's third highest paid player at the time.