Official: Martinelli leaves Arsenal for Al-Hilal in a £60m record sale

We all saw it coming, and it still feels strange.

Arsenal put out their statement on Thursday: Gabriel Martinelli joins Al-Hilal on a permanent transfer, subject to the completion of regulatory processes. The Saudi club confirmed it on their own official site. Seven years after arriving from Ituano, the Brazilian leaves, and he leaves as the most expensive sale in the club’s history.

What the statements say

Sky Sports and ESPN report the same number: £60m fixed, plus a percentage of any future sale. ESPN puts the deal at $81m. The contract runs four years, to 2030.

Arsenal’s previous sale record was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to Liverpool in 2017. The two sources do not agree on what that one was worth: Sky Sports says £40m, ESPN says £35m. Either way, Martinelli goes comfortably past it.

Arsenal put his time at the club at 278 appearances and 62 goals across seven seasons. Sky Sports breaks down the league share: 191 Premier League appearances, 41 goals, 24 assists. There are also 27 caps for Brazil, including the 95th-minute goal against Japan that sent the Seleção into the last 16 this summer, before they went out to Norway.

What is still unclear

His wages, first of all. CBS Sports mentioned more than $23m a year in late August, a figure neither Ornstein nor Romano has picked up since, and one that neither Arsenal nor Al-Hilal will discuss.

Then the sell-on clause: Sky Sports confirms it exists without putting a percentage on it. And again according to CBS Sports, a share of the fee goes to Ituano, his boyhood club. Arsenal will not bank £60m net.

How we got here

Arteta told him he could leave this summer, and the club let everyone see the message. Martinelli was left out of the squad for the Community Shield, then for the first two league games, while Christos Tzolis took over his left flank.

Galatasaray moved first with €45m on 12 August, turned down two days later by the player’s camp, who did not want Turkey at this stage of his career. Roma, Juventus, Napoli and Inter were all mentioned without ever lodging an offer. Then Ornstein broke the Al-Hilal link on 23 August, and the file never moved off it. It still took another twelve days to wrap up, with a player who hesitated for a long time and a flight to Riyadh that was denied before it was confirmed. The English window had already closed on 1 September; it was the Saudi market, open until the 6th, that let the deal be finished.

The GG take

£60m for a player in the final year of his contract who was no longer in the plans is very well played on the balance sheet. Berta did the job.

What bothers me is the other end of the equation. We sold Martinelli and Jesus, loaned out Nwaneri, and brought in one forward, Tzolis. The English window has been shut since Tuesday: short of a free agent, there is nothing left to do until January. Martin Keown was saying it before the deadline, we needed a signing behind him. It never came.

And then there is the part that does not fit on a balance sheet. For me, Martinelli will always be that run at Stamford Bridge in his first season, and the kid from Ituano nobody knew anything about who ended up playing for Brazil. He is the second-to-last player left from the squad Arteta inherited in December 2019: only Saka remains.

All the best, Gabi. 🔴⚪

Sources and reliability

File status: OFFICIAL. Arsenal’s statement of 3 September 2026, confirmed by Al-Hilal on their own site, and picked up the same day by Sky Sports, ESPN, David Ornstein (The Athletic) and Fabrizio Romano.

The two points not confirmed by a top-tier source, and presented as such above: the player’s wages and the exact value of the sell-on clause.