Italian outlet Tuttosport has dampened Arsenal’s hopes of signing Mehdi Benatia as they are reporting the Moroccan is close to signing a new contract with Juventus, thus ruling out a move to Arsenal this summer.
Benatia is now 31 years of age and has had a long fruitful career all over Europe where he has proven himself to be a top-class centre back.
The Moroccan started his career in Ligue 1 with Marseille where he would be loaned out several times to the likes of Tours and FC Lorient.
Benatia would then move to Udinese in 2010 and after three seasons with the Serie A club, Benatia would earn a big move to AS Roma for a fee in the region of £12.5 million.
After one season at Roma Benatia played 37 games, scored five goals and caught the eyes of many big clubs in Europe.
Benatia had two very successful seasons at Bayern Munich, in which he helped guide Bayern to two Bundesliga titles and one German Cup.
However, after somewhat losing favour in the Bayern starting eleven, Benatia would be loaned to Juventus in the summer of 2016 before permanently signing for the Italian giants in 2017 for a fee of around £15 million.
Benatia would also prove a key member of Juventus squad for his two seasons there. The Moroccan would play a pivotal role in Juventus winning two Serie A titles and two Italian Cups.
Arsenal’s interest in Benatia comes on the back of what looks to be a shift in transfer policy at Arsenal.
In the past, Arsenal would sign players very young and attempt to grow them into world-class players.
But now, it appears Arsenal are taking a very different approach which seems to be to sign very experienced older players.
The Gunners have already signed the likes of Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Stephan Lichtsteiner this summer.
Both of which are in the twilight years of their careers and it did look as though Arsenal would add Benatia to their group of new experienced signings but he now looks to have had a change of heart and is likely to stay at Juventus this summer.
