David Luiz agent Kia Joorabchian is confident the Brazilian wants to extend his stay at Arsenal despite being out of contract and there is a “very high chance” it will happen.
With Sky Sports News recently learning Luiz moved to the Emirates on a one-year deal – rather than the reported two-year contract – Joorabchian has revealed Arsenal had the option to extend the deal for a second season, which they did not take and the clause has since expired.
And in an interview with Sky Sports News on Sunday, Joorabchian insisted Luiz did not want to leave Arsenal, adding the club and player would discuss his future as soon as possible.
“He’s very happy at Arsenal,” Joorabchian said. “He has an extremely good relationship with both the coach and the sporting director. He has good relationships all throughout the club, right up to the owner. He respects everybody.
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“Arsenal had an option, which expired. We also had a pandemic [coronavirus]. So the option expired in the middle of the pandemic. We are all very aware of that situation and we are all trying, very slowly, to get back to this ‘new normal’.
“These contract situations, these renewals, if he stays or if he goes… will all sort themselves out when we get back to some kind of ‘new normal’.
“David will sit down with Arsenal before the season begins, have his conversations and they will both decide if he will stay or not. That will come before the season starts. The chances are very high [of Luiz being at Arsenal next season]. There is no desire to leave.”
Also Joorabchian clarified recent reports Luiz had said returning to former club Benfica could be a possibility, explaining: “What he said was, ‘if the opportunity arose in the future – before I retire – I could go back to Benfica and finish my career where I started it’. But he never mentioned about wanting to go back to Benfica now.”
In addition, Joorabchian rejected a recent report Luiz had cost Arsenal a total of £24m for the 2019/20 season.
According to The Athletic, Arsenal paid £8m to Chelsea and £6m to “intermediaries to fix everything up”, in addition to Luiz’s annual salary of £10m.
However, Joorabchian insists the figure of £6m paid to intermediaries to broker the deal is inaccurate.
“The agent’s fee that was reported by The Athletic is so, so, so wrong. The fee for David was less than 10 per cent of that.”
