Arsenal star set for transfer to Champions League rivals
Tom Hancock
- 7 Aug 2023 15:22 BST
- 3 min read
French outfit Lens have emerged as the latest club keen on signing Arsenal’s Folarin Balogun.
The report comes amid news from The Athletic’s David Ornstein that the Gunners have today (August 7) rejected a bid from Monaco for the 22-year-old striker.
Earlier in the summer, FootballTransfers exclusively revealed that West Ham were plotting a move for Balogun – and the Hammers could still make a move for the USA international, having collected a healthy £105m fee from Arsenal for Declan Rice last month.
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According to the Gazzetta dello Sport, Lens are ‘very interested’ in Balogun as they look to revamp their squad ready for their first Champions League campaign in 20 years.
Franck Haise’s side finished as runners-up behind PSG in Ligue 1 last season – but they have since lost 21-goal top scorer Lois Openda, who has moved to RB Leipzig.
As such, a new centre-forward is a major priority – and Balogun has already shown he can hack it in the French top flight, also finding the net on 21 occasions last term.
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The race is on
Balogun won’t come cheap, though: Arsenal are said to value their academy product at £50m (€37m).
Lens have never previously spent anywhere near that amount on a player – although they did sell Openda for €43m, meaning they ought to have a reasonable sum available to go towards a replacement.
They could face some seriously stiff competition, though: 2022/23 Champions League finalists Inter Milan will likely enter the race for Balogun, per Sky Sports’ Dharmesh Sheth.
Speaking back in June, Balogun – who has made just 10 first-team appearances for the Gunnes – made it clear that he wanted some kind of certainty over his future. “I definitely won’t go on loan again,” he insisted.
