Arsenal appears to be nearing a €15 million deal for promising Belgian talent Arthur Vermeeren, dealing a setback to Barcelona, as reported.
The Gunners are on track to finalise this transfer during the upcoming January window, leaving Barcelona to miss out on a player they had targeted.
Arsenal is confident that 18-year-old midfielder Vermeeren will seamlessly transition to Premier League football, and the reported transfer fee stands at around €15 million (£13.1 million), according to Spanish reports.
Vermeeren has spent his entire career at Royal Antwerp in Belgium, progressing through the club’s academy and accumulating 53 senior appearances to date.
The young talent recently earned his first cap for the Belgium national team, highlighting a promising future.
Vermeeren is described as a blend of a conventional holding midfielder and a box-to-box midfielder.
Notably, Marc Overmars, a former Arsenal star and Royal Antwerp’s director of football, has previously drawn comparisons between Vermeeren and football icons Andres Iniesta and Xavi.
Ex-Tottenham defender Toby Alderweireld, team-mates with Vermeeren at Royal Antwerp, is also a big fan of the teenager.
‘He arrived in the team by force of circumstance, but since then he has learned very quickly,’ Alderweireld said via The Sun. ‘He reads the game very well; his potential is enormous. Have I seen this before? Rarely, I think.’