Gabriel Martinelli has left Arsenal for Al-Hilal in a deal worth a fixed £60m, ending a seven-year stay in north London and setting a club record for the largest fee Arsenal have ever received for a player. The Brazil winger has signed a four-year contract in Riyadh, with Arsenal retaining a percentage of any future sale.
The fee comfortably eclipses the £35m Liverpool paid for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in 2017, the previous high-water mark for an Arsenal departure. Martinelli, 25, leaves having scored 62 goals in 278 appearances, and only months after playing 53 times in a season that delivered a Premier League title and a Champions League final. He had 12 months remaining on his contract.
From £6m gamble to squad casualty
Martinelli’s Arsenal career began as one of the most celebrated pieces of scouting in the modern club’s history. Signed from Ituano in 2019 for around £6m as an 18-year-old who had been rejected on trials in Europe, he announced himself with two goals against Nottingham Forest in the League Cup and a solo run from inside his own half at Stamford Bridge that became the defining image of a bleak season.
He went on to be a fixture of Mikel Arteta’s rebuild, the left-sided runner whose direct carrying gave a possession-heavy side a way to attack space rather than merely occupy it. His best return came in 2022-23, when 15 Premier League goals helped Arsenal lead the title race deep into May.
What followed was a slow squeeze. Arsenal’s attack grew more expensive and more crowded, Martinelli’s minutes became increasingly substitute minutes, and his final-third output never returned to that peak. This summer the club signed Greek winger Christos Tzolis, who started the opening Premier League fixtures, and Arteta told Martinelli he was not part of the plan. He was left out of the matchday squads against Coventry City and Aston Villa — the clearest possible signal that a transfer had moved from likely to necessary.
Al-Hilal’s Premier League raid
For Al-Hilal, Martinelli is the third piece of an attacking overhaul assembled almost entirely from English football. Crysencio Summerville arrived from West Ham for a reported €64.5m; Ollie Watkins joined from Aston Villa in a £51m deal. Martinelli completes a front line built for pace and vertical running under Simone Inzaghi, and he is expected to be available for the Riyadh derby against Al-Shabab.
The pattern matters as much as the individual signing. The first wave of Saudi Pro League recruitment, in 2023, was dominated by players in their thirties collecting a final contract — Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kanté, Neymar. Martinelli is 25, Summerville is 24, Watkins is in his prime. Al-Hilal are no longer buying reputations at the end of their useful life; they are buying players Premier League clubs would ordinarily expect to keep, and paying fees that make refusal difficult.
That is the structural shift English clubs have been bracing for. A £60m offer for a player with a year left on his deal and no place in the manager’s plans is not a decision Arsenal had to agonise over. It is the ease of that decision — for both selling club and player — that should concern the rest of the league.
What it means for both clubs
Arsenal bank a substantial fee for a player they had already moved past, with the sell-on clause offering upside if Martinelli returns to Europe. The immediate cost is depth: Tzolis is unproven at this level, and a squad chasing domestic and European honours has thinned its options on the left in the middle of a long season. Arteta has been explicit that he wanted a leaner, more clearly ranked squad. He now has one.
Martinelli’s move carries a sporting risk he cannot easily hedge. He scored against Japan at the World Cup before Brazil’s elimination by Norway, and the Saudi league has not yet proved it can sustain a player’s international standing. Carlo Ancelotti’s successors in the Brazil setup will judge him on form in a competition few of them watch closely.
What he gains is certainty. He arrives at a club unbeaten at the top end of the Roshn Saudi League, in a team rebuilt around exactly the qualities he offers, with four years of guaranteed football ahead of him. At Arsenal, he had none of that. That is the trade, and at 25 it is a real one.
**Sources:** [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49720317/gabriel-martinelli-al-hilal-arsenal-transfers-premier-league-saudi-pro-league), [Yahoo Sports](https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/arsenals-martinelli-joins-al-hilal-163048035.html), [Goal.com](https://www.goal.com/en/lists/al-hilal-in-their-new-guise-premier-league-trio-threaten-the-dominance-of-al-nassr-and-al-ahli/bltb5b16a5386770533)
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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