Arsenal announced on 3 September 2026 the permanent transfer of Gabriel Martinelli to Al-Hilal. The club statement is a single line: the Brazilian has joined the Saudi Pro League side. Everything else, meaning the fee, the length of the contract and the sell-on share, is not in Arsenal’s document and is not in the Saudi club’s either: it is in the English press, and it is worth saying up front which of the two we are reading.
The deal at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Player | Gabriel Teodoro Martinelli Silva, 25, Brazilian |
| From | Arsenal |
| To | Al-Hilal, Saudi Pro League |
| Formula | Permanent transfer, stated by the club |
| Fee | Not published by either club. Sky Sports and ESPN report 60 million pounds fixed plus a sell-on percentage |
| Saudi contract | Four years according to international press, not stated in Arsenal’s release |
| Years at Arsenal | Seven, from July 2019 |
| Appearances and goals | 278 and 62 in all competitions, figures from the statement |
| Date of announcement | 3 September 2026 |
The statement says one thing, and it should be taken for that
“Gabriel Martinelli has joined Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal on a permanent transfer”: that is the sentence Arsenal open with. The rest of the text is a farewell, with the numbers of his stay and the trophies: the 2023-24 Premier League, the 2020 FA Cup, the 2023 Community Shield, and the memory of his arrival from Ituano in July 2019, when he was 18 and almost nobody in Europe knew the name.
What the statement does not contain is the part everyone will talk about: how much Arsenal banked. Here the English press is consistent, and it is worth reporting it for what it is. Sky Sports and ESPN write of 60 million pounds as a fixed fee, with no add-ons, plus a percentage due to Arsenal on any future sale. If that is the number, it is the biggest fee the club has ever received: the previous mark was the sale of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to Liverpool in the summer of 2017, put at 40 million pounds by Sky and at 35 by other accounts.
Two figures never confirmed by a club, compared with each other to establish a record: that is how these landmarks are almost always built, and saying so takes nothing away from the size of the deal. It does take something away from the certainty with which it gets told.
What makes this sale different: the English window was already shut
On 3 September Arsenal could not sign anyone. The Premier League and EFL window closed at 23:00 BST on Tuesday 1 September 2026, as the Premier League writes on its own site, and from that moment no English club can register a player until 1 January.
Selling, though, is allowed. The window that counts in a transfer is the buying club’s, because that is where the player is registered: if the buyer’s market is open, the deal goes through. That is why in the days after the English deadline, Premier League sides remain exposed: they can lose a first-team player with no way of replacing him on the market, unless they take someone without a contract.
Arsenal are exactly there. They have sold a wide forward who was an important part of the squad in their title season, and to replace him they can only turn to what is already in the building. It is the other side of the same coin that, in the preceding weeks, allowed English clubs to finish their squads while other markets were still quiet.
On the closing date of the Saudi window the sources we consulted do not agree: some point to 6 September, others to 12 October. Not having found the Saudi federation document that fixes it, we do not state it as a fact: what remains certain is that on 3 September that window was open, because the deal was completed.
What Arsenal lose
Martinelli reaches the last day of his Arsenal story with numbers that say more than his final season: 278 appearances and 62 goals in all competitions, across seven years. That is the shape of a player who grew up inside the club, not a passing signing.
The Brazilian arrived in 2019 from Ituano, a club in the state of São Paulo, in a deal presented at the time as a bet on an 18-year-old. He went through Mikel Arteta’s rebuild and the title season. With Brazil he has 27 caps and the 2020 Olympic gold.
In the Al-Hilal squad, again according to international press accounts, there are two players who arrived from England in the same window: Crysencio Summerville, Dutch, from West Ham, and Ollie Watkins, English, from Aston Villa. In those two cases as well, no club published a fee.
What to watch now
Three things, in order of verifiability. The first is Arsenal’s accounts: if the figure is the one reported, it will appear in the club’s half-year statement as a capital gain, and that is where the number stops being a reconstruction. The second is the sell-on share, which nobody has quantified: it becomes relevant only on the day Al-Hilal decide to move the player on. The third is about the pitch, and it is the simplest: who plays on the left for Arsenal now that Martinelli is gone and the market does not reopen until January.
One fact makes this day readable months from now: on 3 September 2026 an English club made the biggest sale in its history on a day when, by regulation, it could not buy anyone.
Sources: Arsenal’s official statement of 3 September 2026 on arsenal.com for the transfer, appearances, goals and trophies; premierleague.com for the date and time of the English deadline; Sky Sports and ESPN for the reported fee of 60 million pounds, the sell-on share, the length of the Saudi contract and the comparison with the Oxlade-Chamberlain sale; international agencies for Al-Hilal’s other arrivals. Neither club has published the value of the deal.
Frequently asked questions
What did Arsenal actually announce?
One line: Gabriel Martinelli has joined Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal on a permanent transfer. The statement recalls that the Brazilian arrived from Ituano in July 2019 and leaves with 278 appearances and 62 goals in all competitions. It does not say what he cost, and it does not say how long his Saudi contract runs.
How much did Arsenal receive?
The club has not published it. Sky Sports and ESPN report a fixed fee of 60 million pounds plus a sell-on percentage, and call it the most lucrative sale in Arsenal's history. Until one of the two clubs writes the number down, it remains a press reconstruction, however consistent.
What was Arsenal's previous record sale?
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to Liverpool in the summer of 2017. That fee was never published by the clubs either: the outlets covering the Martinelli deal put it at 40 million pounds, other accounts say 35. That is exactly why a record like this deserves caution: it compares two numbers no club has ever confirmed.
How can Arsenal sell if the English window closed on 1 September?
Because the window that matters is the buying club's, since that is where the player is registered. The English window closed at 23:00 BST on 1 September 2026 and from that moment Arsenal cannot register anyone, but they can still sell to a club whose market is open. The asymmetry applies to every big-league European side for as long as the Saudi window stays open.
What did Martinelli win at Arsenal?
The 2023-24 Premier League, the 2020 FA Cup and the 2023 Community Shield, according to the club statement. With Brazil he has 27 caps and an Olympic gold medal from 2020.
Who else joined Al-Hilal this summer?
According to international press accounts, this window also brought Dutch winger Crysencio Summerville from West Ham and England striker Ollie Watkins from Aston Villa. Neither move came with official figures from the clubs, and we have not verified the club's full list of foreign signings.
