Arsenal have reportedly reached a verbal agreement to sign the Ituano wonderkid Gabriel Martinelli.
According to Jorge Nicola, from Yahoo, the Gunners are only waiting for the player to get his EU passport so they can announce the deal.
Nicola doesn’t say how much Arsenal are paying for the 17-year-old. However, he brings some information on how much Ituano were demanding.
He says Palmeiras and Flamengo both made official bids, but didn’t match the US$5m which Ituano wanted for 50% of the player.
Since it’s unlikely that Arsenal are only buying a half of Martinelli’s right, we can guess they’re paying twice of that demanded amount.
A few days ago, it’s been claimed that the Gunners made a bid of €6m for the striker, with Brazilian outlets saying that the player ‘should’ be moving to the English club.
It’s also been claimed that Martinelli would leave Ituano by the end of the State Championship. As Ituano were eliminated from the quarterfinals on Wednesday night, it all makes sense now.
When we first started covering the Martinelli rumours, it was reported in Brazil that the youngster was in the process of getting Italian citizenship.
Gabriel Martinelli | From Brazil: @LucasSposito_ takes a look at Arsenal’s transfer target, and explains why the Gunners would need to move quickly.https://t.co/QyCeQerT3Z #afc
— Sport Witness (@Sport_Witness) March 15, 2019
