Former Arsenal striker to join Champions League top-8 club | OneFootball

Arsenal deals & transfers January 2025

Lille have reached an agreement to sign former Arsenal striker Chuba Akpom on loan with an option to buy, according to reports.

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David Ornstein reported for The Athletic on Friday that Lille have reached an agreement with Ajax to sign Chuba Akpom on loan with an option to buy.

Akpom has permission to travel for a medical ahead of the deal’s completion, after turning down a number of clubs in the Premier League, Championship, and around Europe.

De Telegraaf claim the purchase option has been set at €12.5m (£10.5m), and name Fiorentina and Sunderland as two of the other clubs who were pursuing Akpom this month.

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With all due respect to the other two clubs, Lille clearly present the most exciting opportunity. The French club have just finished in the top eight of the Champions League’s League Phase, meaning automatic progression to the last-16.

Akpom has previously played in Champions League qualifiers, and he made the bench in the main tournament three times for Arsenal. But he’s yet to make his debut in Europe’s top competition.

Ajax were playing in the Europa League, Fiorentina in the Europa Conference League, and Sunderland are pushing for promotion to the Premier League.

Domestically, Lille are in the last-16 of the Coupe de France and they’re fighting for European qualification for next season, sitting sixth in Ligue 1 at the time of writing.

Sixth would be enough for the Europa Conference League qualifiers, but they’ll want to push for Champions League football. Third-place Monaco are only two points ahead.

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Akpom scored eight goals and assisted one in 1,538 minutes for Ajax this season, averaging a goal or assist every couple of 90s. He’ll want to build on that with Lille, hopefully playing more consistent minutes.

The 29-year-old spent his youth career with Arsenal, eventually breaking into the first-team squad. But after 12 appearances for the Gunners and six loan moves, he decided to move on permanently in 2018.