Al-Hilal are closing in on an agreement with Arsenal for forward Gabriel Martinelli and are prepared to pay the Brazil international a salary of over $23 million (€20 million) plus bonuses to convince him to make the move to the Saudi Pro League, according to CBS Sports sources.
Club-to-club talks are progressing smoothly, those same sources indicate, with a gap of around $9.3 million (€8 million) to be bridged before Arsenal will agree to the sale of Martinelli, who has been left out of the squad for both of the Gunners' competitive games this season. A source has told CBS Sports that Arsenal are also looking to include a sell on clause to protect themselves should Martinelli subsequently move on from Al-Hilal.
Having previously been focused on staying with the Premier League champions, Martinelli is understood to be more open to a move away from Arsenal and he is said to have been informed by Mikel Arteta as to why he has slipped out of consideration for the matchday squad. A move to Al-Hilal would see Martinelli almost double his pre-tax earnings, a huge upswing on the contract he signed with Arsenal in February 2023. That deal is scheduled to run until the end of June, after which Arsenal have an option to extend by a further 12 months.
At that time, Martinelli was in the midst of a season in which he would score a team high 15 goals in the Premier League, providing a further six assists for title-challenging Arsenal. At just 21 years of age it seemed that he would be a cornerstone of Arteta's side for years to come and yet the goals dried up considerably for the Brazilian with just one scored in last season's Premier League, where he started only 11 times.
Martinelli has long been of interest to top Saudi clubs but had previously been unmoved in the face of interest from the Pro League. CBS Sports understands that last summer intermediaries offered his services to Al-Nassr at a time when Arsenal were hoping to sell for in excess of $100 million. Martinelli turned down that move as he did one to Galatasaray earlier this summer.
Any deal for Martinelli would be a club-record sale for Arsenal and would almost all be reflected as profit in their accounts given that they signed the Brazilian from third-tier Ituano for around $8 million in 2019. Those funds could be reinvested into the pursuit of a superstar attacker with Julian Alvarez of Atletico Madrid a potential option, albeit not a like for like replacement for left winger Martinelli.
Al-Hilal, meanwhile, are confident that they will soon be pairing Martinelli with Ollie Watkins, who was left out of the Aston Villa squad for their 4-0 defeat to Brighton on Sunday. "You can call him and you can call his agent and he can respond," was how Unai Emery responded to questions over whether Watkins had refused to play. "He [Watkins] can only explain his answer, I can't."
The Riyadh club had previously been targeting Pedro Neto as they looked to strengthen the flanks of Simone Inzaghi's side. However talks with Chelsea were placed on pause with the Blues said to be valuing the Portugal international at $136 million.
