{"id":1302,"date":"2026-04-01T09:47:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=1302"},"modified":"2026-04-01T09:47:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:47:17","slug":"riccardo-calafiori-open-to-arsenal-transfer-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=1302","title":{"rendered":"Riccardo Calafiori open to Arsenal transfer exit"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Riccardo Calafiori celebrates with Arsenal teammate Piero Hincapie (Photo by Alex Pantling\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

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My colleague Simon Phillips<\/a> recently covered an interesting story about\u00a0Chelsea\u2019s interest in Riccardo Calafiori, and I\u2019ve had some more information on the Arsenal defender\u2019s future.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although I\u2019ve also been told there is some interest from Chelsea, it seems this is not currently considered a realistic deal for two reasons.<\/p>\n

Firstly, Arsenal don\u2019t want to sell to a rival, and secondly, Calafiori himself is understood to favour a return to Italy if possible, with the former Bologna man not short of interest from Serie A.<\/p>\n

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Chelsea\u2019s interest in Calafiori is genuine and dates back to before he moved to Arsenal, with the Blues also one of the clubs in for the player in the summer of 2024.<\/p>\n

Still, Chelsea will likely have to look elsewhere for new defensive additions, with <\/span>Nottingham Forest\u2019s Murillo widely linked<\/a> as one of their top targets for that area of their squad.<\/span><\/p>\n

Riccardo Calafiori open to Serie A transfer return<\/h2>\n

One interesting domino effect that could impact Calafiori\u2019s future is the situation at Inter Milan, who face losing Alessandro Bastoni to Barcelona.<\/p>\n

Inter are looking for a replacement for Bastoni<\/a> and sources in the industry have informed me that Calafiori is someone they\u2019re keen on for that role.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arsenal\u2019s preference would be to keep the 23-year-old and there\u2019s not currently anything advanced on an exit, but it looks like one to watch as the player himself is keen on more playing time.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalafiori isn\u2019t pushing to leave Arsenal, but he\u2019s fallen behind Piero Hincapie in the pecking order this season, so Inter feel it\u2019s a deal that would be worth exploring,\u201d one source told me. \u201cHe\u2019s keen to return to Italy at some point, and though this is a bit sooner than expected, it can\u2019t be ruled out for this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arsenal will want to ensure they still have depth at the back, with Calafiori a useful option to fill in at either left-back or centre-back, though the Gunners also have a number of other names available in that department.<\/p>\n

Arsenal could sell stars this summer<\/h2>\n

This is not the first we\u2019ve heard about big names potentially leaving Arsenal this summer.<\/p>\n

While fans will be eager to hear Arsenal transfer news about new signings coming in, that won\u2019t be possible without money being raised from sales after so much big spending last year.<\/p>\n

Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli, and Ben White<\/a> are names to watch, but a good offer for Calafiori could perhaps also be sensible for AFC to think about.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Hincapie will be joining permanently from Bayer Leverkusen, while Arsenal also still have Myles Lewis-Skelly as an option at left-back, so the club may end up deciding that Calafiori is someone they can afford to cash in on, but again, it\u2019s far from guaranteed and would require a good offer.<\/p>\n

Inter are the main suitors at the moment, but Juventus and Napoli are also long-term admirers of his.<\/p>\n

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Riccardo Calafiori celebrates with Arsenal teammate Piero Hincapie (Photo by Alex Pantling\/Getty Images) My colleague Simon Phillips recently covered an interesting story about\u00a0Chelsea\u2019s interest in Riccardo Calafiori, and I\u2019ve had some more information on the Arsenal defender\u2019s future. Although I\u2019ve also been told there is some interest from Chelsea, it seems this is not currently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}