Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ‘set to sign new three-year contract’ at Arsenal

 

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is ‘poised to sign a new three-year contract at Arsenal‘ that will see him become the club’s highest-paid player.

The news that the 31-year-old striker – Arsenal’s leading goalscorer with 29 last season – has committed his future to the club will come as a huge relief to fans.

It follows months of negotiations between the Gabon international and the London club and will see Aubameyang eclipse £350,000-a-week Mesut Ozil as the club’s highest earner.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ‘is poised to sign a new three-year contract’ at Arsenal

The Gunners’ leading scorer last season with 29 is set to become the club’s top earner

The influence of Gunners head coach Mikel Arteta as well as Aubameyang’s father was significant in persuading the striker to commit, according to The Athletic.

Arsenal captain Aubameyang was into the final year of his contract, which forced the club to choose between selling him for a transfer fee this summer of seeing him leave for nothing next year.

Inter Milan and Barcelona were among the elite European clubs interested in signing one of the Premier League’s most consistent goalscorers.

But he will ‘imminently’ put pen to paper on a new deal through until 2023. The terms were negotiated by now-departed head of football Raul Sanllehi and finalised by technical director Edu and contracts specialist Huss Fahmy. 

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was a significant factor in convincing Aubameyang to stay

The Gabon forward was all smiles as Arsenal had their media photocall earlier this week

Aubameyang will receive a salary increase to reflect his importance to Arsenal, who finished eighth in the Premier League last season but won the FA Cup. 

Ozil has long been the club’s leading earner with weekly wages of £350,000 but Aubameyang is expected to be paid more than that under his new deal.  

The forward steps taken by the club since Arteta’s appointment last December proved crucial in persuading Aubameyang to agree to stay, according to The Athletic, in the wake of failed negotiations in the summer of 2019. 

They started the new campaign with a penalty shoot-out victory over Premier League champions Liverpool in the FA Community Shield at Wembley.

Aubameyang scored for the Gunners in normal time and then converted the deciding penalty.