There is still no official confirmation from either Arsenal or Nice, but it seems that the Colombian international goalkeeper, David Ospina, is going to be making his Premier League debut this season.
At least in France, this is a done deal. The Nice Matin is reporting that a deal for £4 million has been struck between Arsenal and Nice. Maybe it’ll turn out to be true through the broader media very soon, but there is still no confirmation from the club about it being official.
It’s very close, in any case. Arsene Wenger wants Szczesny to feel some fire under his feet, and to be a bit pressed about his position as the team’s number one goalkeeper. After spending some big money on Alexis Sanchez and Mathieu Debuchy, the plan is to keep on making big signings, with a goalkeeper coming in being a top proirity.
Ospina, like other Latin American goalkeepers, left a lot of people impressed with his performance during the World Cup. The 25-year old has already been capped 44 times by Colombia, and has been doing a very good job for Nice since signing there in 2008, arriving to Europe from Atletico Nacional.
He has appeared a total of 199 times for Nice during his time in the South of France. His contract runs out in a year, which means Nice didn’t have too many options. Knowing he has plenty of interest from bigger clubs, not selling him and risking letting him go for nothing wasn’t the right way to approach this.