Arsenal are already moving in the transfer market until the next window opens in January
Mikel Arteta has set his sights on Bayer Leverkusen’s Christian Kofane, with Arsenal reportedly in contact with the forward’s agents.
The Gunners spent less money than their main Premier League rivals in the summer window, signing five players for around £170m. Now it seems Kofane are making plans for January with representatives confirming Arsenal’s interest.
SportBild reports that the north London outfit have been linked for some time, but they are not alone. Manchester United are also interested in Kofane and have spoken to his representatives.
A bonus for both clubs is that the striker’s talks with Bayer have been suspended as the German side want to offer him an improved contract. Kofane’s current deal runs until 2029 and he earns around £850,000 a year, but the Bundesliga outfit want to increase that to more than £3m a year to lock him down until 2031.
Kofane has been compared to the famous Samuel Eto’o by former French striker Samuel Lobe, who played for Lille and Red Star. Lobe said the 20-year-old reminded him of the former Cameroon international and believes he will do great things.
Speaking after Kofane’s winning goal against Mozambique at last year’s Africa Cup of Nations, Lobe said: “He (Kofane) reminds me of Eto’o in the way he plays. He is a talented young player. If he keeps this pace up, he will go far.”
In 50 games for Bayer, Kofane scored 10 goals and assisted 9 times. He won seven caps for his country, scored two goals in the AFCON and reached the quarter-finals in his first major tournament for Cameroon.
Other reports in Germany claimed interest from Newcastle, Everton and Aston Villa, but this did not amount to a concrete move. When asked about his future, Kofane remained coy about his plans.
Speaking in the summer window, he said: “As I said, I’m focused on playing football at the moment. But now that you’ve brought it up, I guess I should start thinking about it.”
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