Arsenal have sealed the signing of Ezri Konsa from Aston Villa, with the fee understood to be around \u00a351 million ($69.4 million). The England centre-back arrives as the club continue to strengthen their squad for the 2026\/27 season, adding depth to a defence that has already carried much of Arsenal\u2019s recent success.<\/p>\n
Konsa gives the squad extra cover across the back line. He can operate both at centre-back and at right-back, having also filled that role for England against Norway in the World Cup quarterfinals. That versatility is one of the key reasons Arsenal moved for him, particularly with William Saliba and J\u00fcrrien Timber currently injured.<\/p>\n
Speaking after signing a long-term contract, Konsa said: \u201cI\u2019m super excited. It’s a privilege to be here and can\u2019t wait to get started,\u201d Konsa told club media after signing a long-term contract. \u201cI want to keep winning, I\u2019m hungry to win and that\u2019s what I\u2019m here for. It’s a proud moment for me and my family to play for one of the best teams in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also spoke about the team\u2019s defensive mindset. \u201cThe chemistry they have, they all want to defend for each other, the love they have for defending, they love keeping the ball out of the net which is what you have to do as a defender,\u201d Konsa said of his new teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I just love the way they are together. What they’ve built over the past few years has been special.\u201d<\/p>\n
On his own style, he added: \u201cI like to build up from the back and I like to have a lot of the ball. It’s Mikel’s style and from what I’ve seen from games, it’s the same way the defenders here play. So hopefully I can add a little bit more,\u201d he added, speaking about his personal playing style.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s good being versatile. I can do both jobs, right back and center back, but for me ultimately, wherever the manager wants to put me is, I\u2019ll always do a job and do my best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta described the signing as a major addition, while Unai Emery and Rio Ferdinand also offered positive remarks about the defender. Konsa\u2019s jersey number has also been revealed as he begins the next stage of his career in north London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal have signed Ezri Konsa, adding defensive depth, versatility and proven Premier League quality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1303,1843,711],"tags":[59,180,182],"class_list":["post-18664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-news","category-arsenal-transfer-news","category-aston-villa","tag-featured","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}