Арсенал Габриэл Мартинеллиг 70 сая еврогоор Аль-Хилал руу худалдахаар тохиролцлоо

“His name is Gabi! He’s from Sao Paulo! And he plays for Arsenaaal…” A football legacy is more about moments and feelings than data, transfer fees, and profits.

The thousands of supporters who lost their collective minds and sang to the heavens when Gabriel Martinelli produced one of his breakaway specials to seal the win against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu will never forget how their No 11 made them feel that night.

Their club were learning how to feast at the top European tables again, and Martinelli gobbled Real up with a late flourish. An impromptu party started outside the away exit, with drums and dancing and endless serenading of their Brazil winger. It was a Martinelli carnival, and nobody wanted to leave.

Here he is, just over a year later, ushered towards his exit. As reported on Sunday, he is set to join Al Hilal, with the clubs close to finalising a €70million (£60m) transfer.

He never wanted to leave. That much is clear. Since he joined Arsenal from Ituano in Brazil’s lower divisions as a teenager in 2019 with everything to prove, he gave everything to make Arsenal his special place.

He gave an interview to the club website not long ago in which he summed up how strongly he felt about it all: “I love everything about Arsenal. I love the city. I love my team-mates. I love the fans. I am going to try my best for this football club because this club gave me everything. I don’t care about the money. I just want to play football.” The message was straightforward and genuine, just like him.

It has always been the nature of the game that players and managers move while supporters remain. That occasionally plays havoc emotionally, like any relationship that suddenly hits a breaking point. Most of the time everyone gets on with it — it’s football, it’s business — but sometimes it creates sadness as the level of attachment demands it. Even the section of Arsenal supporters who craved an upgrade on the left side recognise Martinelli played a significant part in a big chapter of history under Mikel Arteta and defended the shirt with a burning passion that will be missed.

Just this past week, football has thrown up examples of transfer stories that carry totally different emotional weight. Liam Delap moved from Chelsea to Nottingham Forest after an unconvincing season at Stamford Bridge. It is his seventh club in a little over four years. The connections were inevitably relatively superficial at Chelsea and everyone seems happy enough with the deal.

In Spain, Julian Alvarez is the centre of a maelstrom at Atletico Madrid, deeply unhappy, desperate to go to Barcelona, and his club are hellbent on that not happening. He was a starlet at River Plate, signed by Manchester City, and became a record signing and poster boy at Atletico only for the image to crack so deeply this summer. He looks like he would do anything to get out of his contract and to force his dream move.

Behind the goal celebrations and striving for success in a team’s sacred colours, players are cogs in football’s global, corporate, financially driven machine. Martinelli has discovered that for himself this summer — a sentiment that feels particularly sharp as his destination is the Saudi League when he is certain he has more to offer at a high level of European football from the pure sporting perspective.

From a human perspective, Martinelli will always be associated with the evolution of Arteta’s Arsenal. Of the group that cavorted on the pitch at Selhurst Park with the Premier League trophy, he was the only one left who had been brought to the club under the previous regime.

Only he and the homegrown Bukayo Saka played for Arsenal in the pre-Arteta days. Over the years others were discarded, some came and went, until the team was strong enough to plant their flag at English football’s summit. Martinelli found his father in the crowd, took his medal off and put it round his dad’s neck. They fell into an embrace and the fans around them shared in their joy. These things are priceless.

Martinelli made the leap from the regional leagues in Brazil to Europe just after his 18th birthday. He arrived as one for the future but impressed so quickly he was integrated into the first team. He threw himself at this opportunity and established himself as a pacy, exciting forward who caught the eye because he played wholeheartedly.

His impact was felt at a time when Arsenal as a team and club were a bit lost — that was keenly felt culturally, and in terms of ambition, through erratic performances and results. Three young amigos came into the team and transformed the mood. They brought a sense of renewed hope. Martinelli, Saka and Emile Smith Rowe injected bravery and belief into Arsenal. They shouldered a responsibility many more experienced players struggled to match.

He arrived in the underwhelming years. He grew up as the team grew up.

Martinelli and Saka have played key roles in Arsenal’s resurgence (Clive Rose/Getty Images)

His expected departure brings sadness, regret and puzzlement. Although he will be handsomely rewarded, it doesn’t make too much football sense that he is headed to Saudi Arabia at the age of 25 — a player who contributed to the ending of a 22-year wait for the Premier League title and was a couple of penalty kicks (or saves) away from being the top scorer in a team that was mighty close to winning the Champions League.

The price is too tempting for Arsenal, but in this wild market not as inflated as others who have not achieved anything close to what he has. It is reasonable to imagine how productive he might be in Spain or Italy (where there is reluctance to pay high transfer fees) or why another Premier League club wasn’t keen to bring in a player of his profile, experience and dedication.

He was far from prolific last season in the league but has in the past racked up strong enough numbers to suggest he is more than capable. He still managed 18 goal involvements in 2025-26. In the past five seasons he hit double figures for combined goals and assists every time, and notably struck 15 Premier League goals in Arsenal’s first title challenge in 2022-23.

He was always keen to sign any new contract and was an integral part of the team that kept pushing until they finally won the league. Over the summer, Arsenal’s finances, and market forces, made him expendable. It is against his wishes, but he has been compelled to accept it and look forward.

With Leandro Trossard, who earned cult hero status also sold, that left hand flank feels very different all of a sudden. Christos Tzolis has made a big impression but has a fair bit to do to surpass the feelings and moments his predecessors generated.

A renovation of Arsenal’s left flank, and a need to address the balance sheets after so many summers where the money generated by sales barely scratched the surface of the sums thrown at investment, in effect shoved Martinelli towards the exit. It has hurt a lot of people around the club because he is such a popular player and team-mate.

While Arteta seeks to fine tune his squad (Gabriel Jesus is closing in on a move to Barcelona), Arsenal will miss certain Martinelli qualities. That raw pace that gave him the signature goal of haring from the halfway line towards an opponent’s goal. That innate hunger to do his defensive work when it was needed. That determination to chase every cause.

He would leave a champion. He remains beloved. The memories he produced in Arsenal colours are eternal. Little Gabi, as he was known, played with such a big heart and departs knowing that he gave his all.