The Gunners have a rich recent history of signing some of the game’s top young Brazilians, with Gabriel Magalhaes, Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli all regulars in Mikel Arteta’s side. However, their prospects of signing another in the form of top young Santos striker Leonardo have faded badly after Benfica reached an agreement over his signing.
The Gunners have looked unconvincing in attack this season, squandering a plethora of chances and that profligacy costing them dear in recent weeks following defeats at Fulham and at home to West Ham, seeing Arsenal slip to fourth in the Premier League table.
As it stands, their top scorer this season is Bukayo Saka with six goals, meaning it is easy to see why Arteta is desperate to add more firepower over the second half of the season to help boost his side’s attack.
To that end, Arsenal have been strongly linked with a move for Brentford’s Ivan Toney, while on Tuesday it emerged that the Gunners were looking at Bayer Leverkusen attacker Victor Boniface as an alternative.
However, any such deal mid-season would be difficult to strike, given Leverkusen’s status as Bundesliga title chasers.
As an alternative, Arsenal have also looked at Leonardo, after the 20-year-old banged in 21 goals in 49 appearances during a season of struggle for his side that ultimately ended in their relegation from Brazil’s Serie A for the first time in their 111-year history.
Arsenal interest in signing Marcos Leonardo confirmed by Sky Sports expert
Revealing why Arsenal sporting director Edu has been so keen on Leonardo, South American football expert Tim Vickery told Sky Sports that Leonardo ticks plenty of the boxes that the Gunners like in all their transfer targets.
“One I’m being told Arsenal are looking at is Santos striker Marcos Leonardo. He had a very good Under-20 World Cup a few months back. Santos have just been relegated.
“What’s interesting about him is that they’d have been relegated much sooner had it not been for his goals. He’s been scoring goals in a losing cause. He is another one who is very raw and he is a penalty-area operator. Not a target-man operator, but a bit like Romario. He’s very good in restricted space and doesn’t offer you a great deal outside the penalty area.
“His link-up play still leaves a lot to be desired, but it could be interesting for Arsenal because his skill set could fit in with the other forwards they have. There will be competition for him from others. Benfica are getting very interested as well.”
Benfica set to win transfer race for Leonardo, claims Fabrizio Romano
As Vickery touched upon, Benfica are also among Leonardo’s suitors and transfer expert Romano has since confirmed that a deal to take the striker to Estadio da Luz has now been agreed.
Giving the transfer his famous Here We Go trademark, Romano claims Benfica will pay a straight €18m (£15.6m) for the Brazil Under-20 striker, with no add-ons factored in.
Romano claims the 20-year-old has already said yes to the move and documents are now in the process of being checked over before the signing is giving the official green light.
That news may come as a blow for Arsenal, who have seemingly delayed too long before making their approach. A transfer hijack at this stage looks unlikely, though it may pain Edu to see Benfica agreeing on such a lowly fee for such a talented prospect.
From Benfica’s point of view, they can look forward to soon welcoming one of the game’s most talented young strikers and they will hope he follows a rich line of successful signings they have made from South America.
Indeed, in recent years Benfica have raked in millions of profits from transfers with Darwin Nunez (his move to Liverpool in June 2022 potentially reaching €100m) and Enzo Fernandez (€120m to Chelsea, last January) two of their more high-profile sales.
If Leonardo fulfils his potential, they will have high hopes that he too may one day be next.
0 Comments