Arsenal have not made an approach in signing Freiburg defender Caglar Soyuncu, according to the Bundesliga club’s director Jochen Saier and he has labelled the recent reports linking the Turkish international to the Gunners as “total nonsense”.
The 21-year-old arrived in Germany from Turkish outfit in Altınordu in 2016. Soyuncu’s form for Freiburg this season has seen him attract interest from European clubs.
His current deal runs down in 2021 and he has a €34m release clause in his contract, out of which, 25% will go to his former club Altınordu.
Saier’s response came after the Turkish club’s president Seyit Mehmet Ozkan earlier claimed the central defender will join Arsenal, despite attracting interest from Bayern Munich.
“Caglar Soyuncu is set to join Arsenal. Arsenal demanded his youth information from us. We’ll earn from him if he joins Arsenal. Bayern Munich wants him too, but he’s on the way to the Premier League,” Ozkan explained.
“Ozkan can know little about the overall scenario. This is total nonsense. Arsenal did not contact me and there is no offer,” Saier told the German publication Bild.
Arsenal currently have the services of Per Mertesacker, Laurent Koscielny, Calum Chambers, Shkodran Mustafi and Konstantinos Mavropanos as the first choice centre-backs at the club.
Mertesacker has already announced his decision to retire after the end of the season. Meanwhile, Chambers and the January signing Mavropanos have not regularly featured for the Gunners.
In addition to this, Koscielny has suffered an injury in Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat at the hands of Atletico Madrid in Spain. The France international will miss the World Cup and is still not clear as to how long he will be out of action.
Should Koscielny miss the first few months of the next campaign, Arsenal will be left with Chambers, Mustafi and Mavropanos as the only recognised central defenders at the club.
