Arsenal are keeping tabs on Bayer Leverkusen striker Christian Kofane as they weigh up adding a forward, and the 20-year-old is a name Gunners fans will remember from last season’s Champions League.
According to BBC Sport, the Premier League champions have been monitoring the Cameroon international as one of their potential options up front. Kofane was part of the Leverkusen side that Mikel Arteta’s team knocked out in the last 16 last season, 3-1 on aggregate.
There is a catch already. He is out injured, and he would not come cheap.
Who is Christian Kofane?
His rise has been quick. Kofane left AS Nylon in Cameroon for Albacete in Spain in November 2024 and scored eight goals in 20 games in La Liga 2, which was enough for Leverkusen to pay €5.25m for him in July 2025.
His first Bundesliga season brought seven goals and nine assists, and he has 10 goals and nine assists in 50 games for Leverkusen in all competitions. This season he had three goals in six games before a hamstring injury, which he is still recovering from. He has seven caps for Cameroon.
Leverkusen hold all the cards. His contract runs until 2029, and he was valued at around €65m (£54m) in the summer. If he comes back and picks up where he left off, that figure is only going one way.
Why are Arsenal looking at a striker?
Because the goals are not flowing the way the results are. Arsenal have won nine of their 10 Premier League games, but six of those wins came by a single goal, and their top league scorers, Kai Havertz, Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka, have three each.
Havertz has been caught offside 15 times, the most in the league, and more than any Arsenal player managed in the whole of last season. Viktor Gyokeres, who scored 21 goals in all competitions last season, has been second choice to him and has started only once in the league.
Arteta knows it too. After the 1-0 win over Hull City, he said his side need to be more “efficient” when they get through on goal, and that against low blocks his players are “trying to score a perfect goal”.
Arsenal’s summer striker search
This is not a new problem. Arsenal wanted a forward in the last window and missed out on Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jnr and Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez. They also liked Morgan Rogers before he joined Chelsea.
The interest in Kofane is not new either. Reports suggest it goes back to April, and Arsenal are not alone: Liverpool and Manchester City have been admirers, and Everton were heavily linked in the summer.
Is Kofane the right striker for January?
Our view: he is a good name to have on the list, but January looks the wrong time. A hamstring injury, a contract to 2029 and a price tag north of £50m add up to a player Leverkusen have no reason to sell mid-season, and Arsenal would be paying a premium for someone they could not judge on recent form.
There is also the bigger question of what Arsenal need first. We argued this week that a left winger should come before a striker if Andrea Berta can only do one deal, and Kofane, for all his promise, would arrive as a project rather than the 20-goal finisher who changes the title race.
Keep watching him, by all means. If he comes back strong in the second half of the season, the summer is when this one makes sense.
