Spanish giants Real Madrid have been linked to a live for Arsenal French defender William Saliba, TeamTalk reports.
Questions were repeatedly asked after Arsenal took three years before handing William Saliba his senior debut for the club.
The French centre-back was originally brought to north London in the summer of 2019. A package worth roughly £27m was agreed with Saint-Etienne – a sizeable fee for a teenager.
However, the Gunners elected to loan Saliba back to Ligue 1 on three separate occasions rather than fastrack the defender into their first-team plans.
Arsenal’s cautious approach has since proven a masterstroke, with Saliba named Ligue 1’s Young Player of the Year during his loan spell with Marseille in the 2021/22 campaign.
His exploits that season prompted Arsenal to determine he was finally ready to cement his place in Mikel Arteta’s starting eleven for the 2022/23 campaign and beyond.
Saliba has not looked back since and two years on and aged just 23, he is widely regarded as one of world football’s premier centre-halves.
Saliba has formed a rock solid and durable centre-back pairing with Gabriel Magalhaes at the heart of Arsenal’s defence, which conceded the fewest goals in the Premier League last season. Their mark of 29 goals conceded was five fewer than eventual champions Manchester City (34).
However, Saliba’s remarkable rise has not gone unnoticed over at the Bernabeu.
