Soccer-Stoke swoop for Liverpool's Wales midfielder

July 25 (Reuters) - Stoke City have captured Wales midfielder Joe Allen from Liverpool on a five-year deal for a fee which could reach 13 million pounds ($17.07 million), the club said on Monday. The 26-year-old, who played a key role in Wales reaching the Euro 2016 semi-finals, is Stoke's second close-season signing after Egyptian winger Ramadan Sobhi joined earlier on Monday. "It has been a whirlwind 48 hours for me but I am delighted to have finally been able to put pen to paper," said Allen, who spent four years on Merseyside after signing from Swansea City. "(Manager) Mark Hughes has achieved great things here... already and he sold the club to me in terms of their ambitions moving forward," he told Stoke's website (www.stokecityfc.com). "He is a Welshman too, and I am sure that he took a keen interest in what we were doing out in France," he added. "I think that maybe some of the performances that I put in out there may have been what sealed my move here." Allen, who played 132 games and scored seven goals for Liverpool, will join the Stoke squad in Orlando on Tuesday. ($1 = 0.7617 pounds) (Writing by Ken Ferris; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)