Inter Milan want to sign a pre-contract agreement with Schalke’s Leon Goretzka in January, according to reports in Italy.

The German midfielder attracted a lot of interest over the summer, in particular after his impressive performances at the u21 European Championships. It seems he’s drawn the attentions of Inter Milan, who Calciomercato claim want to sign him in January.

Only having a year left on his contract, it was believed that Schalke might look to offload him before it got to this stage. However, that didn’t happen and at this point Goretzka has just a few months until clubs will be able to negotiate pre-contract agreements with him.

Arsenal can sympathise with Schalke here, as the Gunners have to deal with expiring contracts for stars Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Özil.

It was a similar situation for the Bundesliga club last year with Sead Kolašinac. And after he ended up moving to North London, some fans were hoping that Goretzka might follow suit. Arsenal are among a group of top clubs all interested in the player, with Bayern Munich previously the frontrunners.

The perennial Bundesliga champions were reported to have signed Goretzka in the summer, but such rumours were denied by the player himself.