David Ornstein confirms Arsenal signing of Riccardo Calafiori

Tom Weber

Updated: 24 Jul 2024 12:35 CDT
3 min read

All the agreements for Riccardo Calafiori's move to Arsenal are in place, according to David Ornstein.

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The Gunners are on the verge of officially landing their top defensive target. On Saturday, Fabrizio Romano broke the news that Arsenal had achieved a breakthrough in negotiations with Bologna for Calafiori.

Already several weeks ago, Arsenal managed to agree personal terms with the Italy defender, but negotiations between the clubs proved difficult, particularly because his former side Basel were still involved in the talks as they are owed 50 per cent of the profit generated by Bologna.

Romano revealed that Arsenal, contrary to reports elsewhere, had managed to negotiate the fee for Calafiori down and are set to pay just €40 million upfront with €5m in add-ons. Others had claimed that the fee would be in the region of €50m.

After Arsenal had completed their talks with Bologna, it was then up to the Serie A side and Basel to agree on a payment structure for the latter's sell-on percentage. Now, the transfer is essentially done.

Arsenal to sign Calafiori

According to David Ornstein of The Athletic, all the agreements for Arsenal to sign the 22-year-old are now in place, meaning that the deal is basically done.

Calafiori now only needs to complete his medical and officially put pen to paper on his long-term contract. If everything goes to plan, the versatile defender is expected to join up with Arsenal on their pre-season tour of the US.

Calafiori is expected to be initially trialled at left-back by Mikel Arteta, which is where he began his career. However, FootballTransfers understands that it is entirely possible for him to displace Gabriel Magalhaes in the left centre-back spot, the position he played consistently at Bologna and for Italy at Euro 2024.