Former Arsenal and France defender William Gallas has joined Patrice Evra in calling for Arsenal to pursue Super Eagles and Galatasaray forward Victor Osimhen.
Speaking with Goal, Gallas urged Mikel Arteta to make a bold move for Osimhen during the January transfer window, highlighting the striker’s potential to solve Arsenal’s goal-scoring issues.
Osimhen, currently on loan from Napoli, was a high-profile target in the summer, with Arsenal and Chelsea both expressing interest. However, Napoli’s reported asking price of around €130 million deterred the interested clubs.
Since joining Galatasaray, Osimhen has shown his value, netting six goals and providing four assists in just six league games, fueling a title push for his Turkish club.
Gallas argued that Osimhen’s presence would add a different dimension to Arsenal’s attack, which has been effective from set-pieces but has lacked finishing consistency from Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus.
“If I could sign one player for Arsenal in January, it would be a world-class striker… I wanted to speak about Osimhen because I know he’s at Galatasaray, and I still don’t understand why he’s there,” Gallas said.
“That’s the type of profile Arsenal need. They need a player with that pedigree. Maybe he won’t score 20 goals in the season, but he will scare defenders, he will give them a hard time, and that will give the opportunity for players around him to score goals.”
Gallas’s sentiments echoed those of former Manchester United star Patrice Evra, who recently expressed surprise that Arsenal didn’t prioritize signing Osimhen, describing it as a missed opportunity for the North London club.
Despite the calls from former players, a January transfer for Osimhen remains unlikely. The 25-year-old striker has expressed his commitment to completing his loan term with Galatasaray, dampening hopes for an early move to the Premier League.
