Arsenal could beat Chelsea and Leeds United to £25m-rated star in summer transfer window

London rivals are looking likely to battle it out in the summer transfer window for the VfB Stuttgart defender Borna Sosa.

The BILD journalist Christian Falk, via Sport Witness took to Twitter to suggest that ‘Chelsea discussed a Transfer of Borna Sosa VfB already in winter. Now Arsenal and Spurs are also interested in a Summer Transfer’.

Chelsea have long been thought to be admirers of the former Croatian defender with several reports linking him to the Blues as they hoped to find a replacement for Ben Chilwell, who recently underwent a successful operation on a knee ligament.

Sosa has been a stellar success for Stuttgart so far this season with five assists and two goals to his name in 20 games so far. The Croat also recorded ten assists in 26 games for the Bundesliga last season.

However, the Blues are now under threat from Arsenal and potentially Tottenham, according to the German journalist.

In his tweet, Falk makes no mention of any contact that has been had with either North London club.

Chelsea had initially been fighting off interest from Leeds United back in the summer and winter transfer window but Falk would appear to suggest that their battle is far from over with Mikel Arteta prowling around as well.

Who is Borna Sosa?

The 24-year-old left-back or left wing-back began his youth and senior career with Dinamo Zagreb before moving to VfB Stuttgart in 2018.

He has since made nearly 70 appearances for the German side with two goals to his name.

The Croatian has played for his national team since U14 level and joined the senior team in 2021, making five appearances so far.

At the beginning of the 2021/22 season, Sosa captained Stuttgart for the first time in a DFB-Pokal match against Dynamo Berlin in which he scored and assisted in the 6-0 victory.

During the first Bundesliga match of the season, the left-back provided Marc-Oliver Kempf and Hamadi Al Ghaddioui with a hat-trick of assists in their defeat of Greuther Furth.

Whoscored.com is currently giving Sosa an overall rating of 6.87.

How likely is Sosa to go to Arsenal?

Sport Witness points out that Falk’s suggestion may be one to take lightly rather than as a firm fact as he has spent much of the day making reference to numerous Premier League rumours with little background for any.

There would also appear to be little sense in Sosa heading to the Emirates Stadium given the presence of Kieran Tierney and Nuno Tavares who both fill the left-back position.

The only likelihood of the move being worthwhile for any player is if one of Tierney or Tavares were to leave this summer.

Who else has shown interest in Sosa?

Leeds were the first team in the 2021/22 season to start looking around for Borna Sosa.

The Croatian news outlet Sportske Novosti cited quotes from the Croatian agent Franjo Vranjkovic that Leeds had submitted a £20 million bid for the left-back back in May 2021 but Sosa chose to remain in Stuttgart for the 2021/22 season.

Chelsea have been continuously linked with Sosa for several months now, but there has been no official discussions or bids made as yet. Sosa was becoming an even more closely monitored target after the Everton defender Lucas Digne made the decision to join Steven Gerrard at Aston Villa over Thomas Tuchel’s side.