Arsenal offer Real Madrid star 5-year, £7m-per-year contract

Arsenal appear to be closing in on the surprise signing of Real Madrid and Spain legend Iker Casillas by offering the goalkeeper a five-year contract worth around £7 million-per-year, according to reports in Spain.

Arsène Wenger has spent the summer on the look-out for another goalkeeper to offer competition to Wojciech Szczęsny after Łukasz Fabiański left on a free transfer to Swansea City last month.

Colombian number one David Ospina is believed to be set to join the Gunners next week but reports also suggest Arsenal could be about to sign Iker Casillas also.

Spanish newspaper Sport are claiming that Arsenal have offered the 33-year old a five-year deal believed to be worth around £7 million-per-year. 

Sport describes the Premier League side’s offer as ‘too good to refuse’, suggesting Iker Casillas would jump at the chance to leave the Bernabéu Stadium for the Emirates next season, with Wenger supposedly promising him the number one shirt this season.

However, the move will only go ahead if Real Madrid agree to terminate Casillas’ contract to allow the top goalkeeper to leave on a free transfer. Arsène Wenger is reluctant to pay a transfer fee on top of his hefty wage. Iker Casillas is in the final year of his contract at Real Madrid.

Sport are confident Madrid will allow Casillas to leave on a free transfer after agreeing a deal to sign Costa Rica first choice Keylor Navas from fellow La Liga side Levante this summer. Diego López was their first choice goalkeeper in league games last season so getting Casillas’ wages off their books would surely benefit the club.

President Florentino Pérez has supposedly agreed verbally with the experienced goalkeeper that he will let him walk away freely from his contact as a ‘thank you’ for 24 years of service to the club.

Iker Casillas was backup to Diego López for all but the last two games in La Liga last season, despite playing in all 11 of their UEFA Champions League matches on their way to winning the competition for a record tenth occasion at the Stadium of Light in Lisbon, Portugual, in May.

The 156-time Spanish international has spent his whole career at Real Madrid since joining the youth academy in 1990 and making his first-team debut in 1999.  He has made 678 appearances in all competitions for the world football giants, winning La Liga on five occasions, the Copa de Rey twice and the UEFA Champions League three times.

Culled from Cleen Sheet