Arsenal join race for £52m Ligue 1 star with 24 goal contributions in 2023/24 campaign

Arsenal are once again being linked with a move for the Paris Saint-Germain star Xavi Simons who is currently on loan at RB Leipzig. Simons, 21, has bagged nine goals and contributed 15 assists for the Bundesliga side this season and his impressive performances have brought with them attention from across Europe.

The Gunners join Bayern Munich and Barcelona in all being ‘very interested’ in making a play for the Dutch star, according to reports from Sport, and the latest news indicates the Ligue 1 winners will only let their winger go for €60 million (£52m).

Simons was a product of the La Liga side’s academy and while the Catalan giants are now keen to bring him back into the set-up, with the club believed to be working on the deal, they are not able to spend such a sum on the Dutch star as their summer transfer priority remains on strengthening other positions. Arsenal and Bayern, however, are both said to have ‘enough cash’ to sign the 13-time Dutch international.

The 21-year-old, who was described as a ‘prodigy’, first moved to PSG in 2019 after failing to agree a new contract with Barcelona. He made seven Ligue 1 appearances but headed to PSV Eindhoven the following season in order to gain more pitch-time, with PSG adding a €6m buy-back clause in Simons’s contract, effective in 2023.

The summer of 2023 saw Arsenal show initial interest in the Dutch ‘wonderkid’ but he ultimately re-joined PSG. Simons was immediately sent out on loan to RB Leipzig and made his debut in the club’s 3-0 win over Bayern Munich in the 2023 DFL-Supercup.

Speaking about the rising star, the former Tottenham Hotspur playmaker Rafael Van der Vaart has previously said he believes very few players have the same qualities as Simons.

“Very few players can do this”, Van der Vaart said via Football Oranje, “in such a small space, accept, turn and shoot the ball on the bar. I look at the potential. How good can someone become in the future? With Xavi Simons, everything that makes me very happy.”

When asked whether he believed if Simons could go on to become world-class, Van der Vaart answered: “Absolutely. Believe me, in a few years we will all say: ‘how nice that we can use this boy for the Dutch national team’”.

These sentiments were also backed up by another of Simons compatriots, Manchester United legend and Simons’ former PSV manager Ruud van Nistelrooy. Speaking previously to Voetball International, van Nistelrooy said: “His mentality, his mindset, it’s unprecedented. It’s a boy of only 19 years old, but Xavi is already much further advanced than his age. But he really is a pure professional, a boy who is working towards a goal, who wants to get the most out of his qualities.”