Arsenal flop seals transfer to save his career - Romano

Tom Weber

• Updated: 7 Feb 2024 17:51 GMT
• 3 min read

Arsenal youngster Marquinhos is on the verge of sealing his next loan move, according to Fabrizio Romano.

The erstwhile Brazilian wonderkid has failed to live up to the hype since moving to Europe for €3.5 million in 2022. It looked a promising piece of business when Arsenal snapped him up from Sao Paulo, but so far, it has been nothing short of a nightmare.

Marquinhos has already had two unsuccessful loan spells since arriving at the Emirates. Last term, the 20-year-old was on the books at Norwich City in the Championship for six months but failed to have any kind of meaningful impact in Norfolk. He ended his stint in the second tier in January with 11 appearances to his name, in which he notched one goal and one assist.

It was a similar story in the first half of the current season, with the Brazilian spending the first six months of 2023/24 at Nantes in Ligue 1. This move proved to be even worse than his Norwich loan as the youngster only played in 149 minutes spread out across seven games. Unsurprisingly, Arsenal again cut his time away from the club short prematurely.

Marquinhos heading back to Brazil

FootballTransfers already exclusively revealed in January that Marquinhos could yet make a late exit from the Emirates. Sources told us that, while a permanent deal wasn't out of the question, a loan move back to Brazil was the most likely scenario for him.

Indeed, this has now come to pass, as confirmed by Fabrizio Romano. According to the Italian transfer expert, the 20-year-old is on the verge of joining Fluminense until the summer. A verbal agreement is in place and the necessary paperwork only needs to be completed.

Crucially, the deal will include an option to buy the winger, though the financial details of the potential transfer are yet to be disclosed. Moving back to Brazil appears to be the smartest solution for Marquinhos at this crucial juncture in his career.