Arsenal looks to have won the race to sign Gabriel Martinelli after reaching a verbal agreement with the Ituano striker ahead of a proposed £5m move, according to reports in Brazil.
Martinelli came through the youth academy at Corinthians before joining Ituano in 2015 and he became the youngest player to play for the club this century when he made his debut in March 2018 aged at just 16.
The pacey forward has developed in to one of the most sought after youngsters in Brazilian football and has caught the eye of a host of European clubs after scoring 10 goals in 31 appearances for the Sao-Paulo based club.
The 17-year-old has previously had trials at Manchester United but the Daily Mail claim that Arsenal have been showing a keen interest in signing the South American along with the likes of Barcelona, Watford and Crystal Palace.
There have been widespread rumours suggesting Arsenal have launched a formal move to sign Martinelli in recent weeks and the Mail are now citing a report from Yahoo Esportes that claims we’ve reached a verbal agreement with the player.
The Brazilian outlet says we’ve beaten off competition from 25 other clubs to bag Martinelli’s signature and a proposed £5m deal will be announced next month once the striker obtains an Italian passport.
Martinelli’s agent, Marcos Casseb, recently told Globo Esporte that he is not surprised by the interest being shown in the player and confirmed he’ll soon join a European club. Casseb is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail:
‘To be honest we expected this to happen. His evolution since last year is very fast, he is above average. The initial planning is for him to go straight to Europe.’
We’ll have to wait and see whether this deal gets over the line but Martinelli sounds like an exciting prospect with a bright future ahead of him so hopefully Arsenal manage to get things wrapped up swiftly.
Unai Emery is expected to be active in the summer market as he continues to overhaul the squad he inherited from Arsene Wenger but hopefully we’ll see some more established players arriving as well as Martinelli over the coming months.