AC Milan have joined the race for Jakub Kiwior, with FC Porto remaining interested and in talks despite seeing their initial bid for the player rejected.
FC Porto recently emerged as the favourites to sign Jakub Kiwior this summer, should the Poland international leave Arsenal.
Fabrizio Romano confirms that Porto remain interested in Kiwior despite seeing their initial €27m (£23.3m) bid rejected, and he’s always high on the Portuguese club’s shortlist of potential new centre-backs.
James McNicholas reports for The Athletic that Arsenal have indeed been in talks with Porto over Kiwior, though they’re yet to receive a satisfactory offer.
Simon Collings reports for Standard Sport that AC Milan are also in the mix, with both Milan and Porto interested in signing the defender this summer.
Porto are the only ones to make their interest concrete, but Milan hold a long-term interest and are tracking Kiwior’s situation in case he decides to leave.
Collings writes that Arsenal and Mikel Arteta are happy to keep Kiwior, but they could be tempted into selling for the right price. The player may also push to leave if it looks like he isn’t going to get minutes for Arsenal this season.
Arsenal have already signed Cristhian Mosquera as a backup to Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba, with Riccardo Calafiori, Jurrien Timber, and Ben White all capable of playing at centre-back if necessary. Youngster Marli Salmon also made a positive impression in pre-season.
Though Kiwior would probably be preferred at centre-back to most of those names, it’s not as if selling him would leave Arsenal short for this season.
If Arsenal did receive a satisfactory offer, they’d probably be more likely to reinvest the money in signing a winger.