Gabriel Martinelli has left Arsenal to join Saudi Pro League club Al-Hilal in a deal worth £60m, bringing an end to a seven-year association with the north London club. The transfer, which includes a sell-on clause, becomes the most lucrative sale in Arsenal's history, surpassing the £40m the club received from Liverpool for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain back in 2017.
The 25-year-old Brazilian has put pen to paper on a four-year contract with Al-Hilal reported to be worth around £17m per season, a substantial increase on the £180,000-a-week package he was earning at Emirates Stadium. He joins a Saudi outfit currently level at the top of the table with Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr, managed by Simone Inzaghi, and will link up with former Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins and ex-West Ham winger Crysencio Summerville, both of whom also made the move to the Gulf state this summer.
"Proud to be blue, proud to be Al-Hilal," Martinelli said in an unveiling video shared by the club.
Martinelli arrived at Arsenal in 2019 from Brazilian side Ituano for a modest £6m, joining a club then mired in uncertainty under Unai Emery and facing scrutiny of ownership from supporters. He went on to establish himself as a key figure in Mikel Arteta's rebuild, playing a central role in the 2022-23 title challenge when he finished as the club's top scorer with 15 goals. Last season, he was part of the squad that won Arsenal's first Premier League title since 2004, netting 11 goals in 53 appearances across all competitions, including a crucial late equaliser against Manchester City during the title run-in.
Despite that success, his influence had waned in recent months. He scored just once in the league last season, though he enjoyed a productive European campaign, becoming the first Arsenal player to score in five consecutive Champions League matches. With Arteta looking to freshen up his attacking options, particularly on the left flank, Martinelli found himself surplus to requirements. He was left out of Arsenal's opening two matchday squads this season, with the manager indicating he would not feature regularly if he stayed.
That decision drew criticism from some quarters, including former Arsenal striker Ian Wright, who told Sky Sports: "The way Martinelli is being treated at the moment, it really makes me feel uncomfortable. I know they might want him out, and a lot of people might say, 'yeah, it's time for him to move him on'. But there's ways of doing that and it should suit him as well, how he wants to leave."
Martinelli's exit is notable given he had 12 months remaining on his contract and had not been agitating for a move away, having recently married and settled into life in London. Remarkably, Arsenal never lost any of the 54 matches in which he found the net for the club.
His departure comes in the same week as fellow Brazilian Gabriel Jesus completed a £8.6m switch to Barcelona, while Fábio Vieira also left for Hamburg on deadline day. Arsenal opted against bringing in fresh faces before the window closed, though they did recoup roughly £3m from Brook Norton-Cuffy's move from Genoa to Hull thanks to a sell-on clause, while a potential £7m windfall from Folarin Balogun's proposed transfer to Everton fell through.
German coach Jurgen Klopp had once hailed Martinelli as "a talent of the century," predicting a bright future for the winger if he avoided serious injury. He leaves Arsenal with a Premier League winners' medal, a place among the club's most efficient bits of transfer business, and now begins a new chapter in Saudi Arabia's increasingly star-studded top flight.
Based on reporting from Standard Sport, The Guardian, and BBC Sport.