Arsenal star Jorginho accepts €30m-a-year fake offer from Saudi Arabia

Tom Weber

Updated: 1 May 2024 16:41 BST
4 min read

Arsenal star Jorginho has been tricked into accepting a fake big-money contract offer from Saudi Arabia.

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The Gunners star has been the subject of intense speculation due to his expiring contract at the Emirates. Jorginho has been linked with a move to Juventus as he is reportedly open to returning to Serie A, but it seems unlikely that a move will materialise this summer.

FootballTransfers already exclusively revealed back in September that Mikel Arteta is planning with Jorginho until at least 2025 and this has now been confirmed by both Fabrizio Romano and David Ornstein of The Athletic.

Jorginho is expected to pen a new deal with Arsenal, but the Italian evidently wouldn't have turned his nose up at a lucrative offer from Saudi Arabia. Italian TV show Le Iene (via Football Italia) recently carried out an experiment on Italian footballers that saw them handed a massive - but fake - €30-million-per-year offer from Saudi Arabia.

Jorginho was open to the move, as was the vast majority of footballers confronted with this outrageous offer.

(Saudi) money talks

It has been revealed that 88 per cent of the 50 players contacted would have accepted the offer. The experiment was carried out on Serie A stars and famous Italian players abroad. Roma's Lorenzo Pellegrini and ex-Juventus man Federico Bernadeschi, now playing in MLS for Toronto FC, were among the 12% who declined the offer.

Just four players agreed to have their affirmative responses to the fake bid published. Jorginho was one of them; the Arsenal star said: "If you have a concrete offer from someone, I’m always open to hearing what’s there. Requests or interests. Then if something concrete comes to me, I’m always open to it without any problems. Salary worth €30m a year? Yes, you can contact my agent.”

Former Man City and Liverpool forward Mario Balotelli responded: “I could also go there, yes, it obviously depends on how much they offer. We need to sit down, meet and do things a little more formally to understand things. Salary worth €30m a year? That’s fine.”