Arsenal complete signing of Bernd Leno from Bayer Leverkusen

Posted Thursday, June 21, 2018 by squawka.com

Arsenal have completed their second summer signing with the recruitment of Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno.

Leno, 26, has moved to north London for a fee in the region of £20m and becomes the second signing of the Unai Emery era after Stephan Lichtsteiner was brought in on a free transfer.

The German international represented Bayer Leverkusen on more than 230 occasions during a seven year spell at the BayArena, while last season he mustered 33 starts in the Bundesliga.

Leno has so far won six caps for Germany but was omitted from Joachim Low's 23-man squad for the Russian World Cup, with captain Manuel Neuer making a late return to full fitness following an eight-month injury lay-off.

A product of Stuttgart's academy, Leno joined Leverkusen in 2011 and went on to become the youngest ever German goalkeeper to feature in a Champions League match at just 19-years-old, after making his European debut against Chelsea during the group stages.

Since that match, he has gone on to establish himself as the undisputed first-choice gloveman for Die Werkself, while for the national set-up, he was part of the Germany squad that won the 2017 Confederations Cup.

Leno expressed his delight towards signing for the Gunners, writing on his Twitter page: "Happy and proud to play for this great club Arsenal in the future! I'll do my best and I'm looking forward to the start of the new season as a Gunner."

Speaking to the club's official website new manager Emery also revealed his excitement towards working with the German shot-stopper.

"We are very pleased that Bernd Leno will be joining us," he said. "Bernd is a goalkeeper of high quality and experience. He has been a top performer and regular number one goalkeeper with Leverkusen in the Bundesliga for the past seven years.

"We are all excited that Bernd has chosen Arsenal Football Club and look forward to start working with him in pre-season."

And while the news may bring fresh impetus to the Arsenal faithful, either or both current 'keepers Petr Cech and David Ospina may well leave the Emirates if the club cannot guarantee them first-team opportunities.