Kepa Arrizabalaga, the upcoming sensation plying his trade with Athletic Bilbao at the moment is targeted by Real Madrid as well as Arsenal.
Arsenal will be looking to strengthen their man between the posts with Petr Cech turning 36 next season. There is no doubt about Petr Cech’s experience as a Goalkeeper. But he may not be able to play all the matches of the season for Arsenal next year. So Arsenal need to find a Goalkeeper who would fit in perfectly with immense quality.
Kepa Arrizabalaga is one of the upcoming ‘big name’, he has shown his quality with Athletic Bilbao and earned himself Spain National team call-up recently and made his debut for Spain in a International Friendly match against Costa Rica. He was able to keep a clean sheet in the match where Spain crushed Costa Rica with 5 goal margin. The player has also performed well in the under 19 and under 21 level for Spain. He had lifted the under 19 World Cup for Spain in 2012.
The keeper’s contract with Athletic Bilbao is going to expire in the next summer. This thing has made the whole situation very tricky. Real Madrid and Arsenal both teams will be keen to make a move for this player in January as in the next season they might have to face a tough competition from the other big clubs of Europe to Kepa.
If any club want to buy Kepa Arrizabalaga in the January transfer window they have to pay the release clause of 17.85 million £ to Athletic Bilbao. The player is also very much aware of the transfer rumours arising after his name.
“I’ve just made my debut, I am happy, enjoying this moment,” Kepa said.
“I am a player of Athletic and the national team, and there’s little else I can say. The truth is the [rumours] do not make me nervous. You hear them, you see them, I am not blind and know what is going on around me. But I know I am who I am for what I do, not for what people say. I try to keep a calm head.”,he added after playing his debut match for Spanish national side recently.
Spanish national team first choice keeper De Gea believes that Arrizabalaga has a ‘long career ahead of him.’
‘Kepa is still very young. He has a long career ahead of him. But his head is in the right place.
‘When you train with him you realise that he has a very high level. He is a great goalkeeper. He needs to continue to compete at this level and grow game after game.’
But the Manchester United keeper De Gea’s next comments will not please the Arsenal fans very much as he has suggested the player to stay in Spain to get more attention from the Spanish media.
‘All the players like me that leave Spain, we are not followed as much as those that are playing at home and people forget a little bit about us,’ De Gea said.
‘That is why we try to be there and do things to be talked about.’, he added.
So this winter transfer window is going to be a highly interesting one for Kepa Arrizabalaga as he has to see whether any of these two clubs bid for him in January.
But one thing we can say surely that it will be a really good signing for Arsenal if they could be able to land the youth sensational keeper in the winter transfer window.
