Aaron Ramsdale is close to agreeing a new long-term contract with Arsenal, sources have told ESPN.
The 24-year-old goalkeeper has two years remaining on his existing deal but the club were keen to reward him for a prominent role in their unexpected Premier League title push with a significant improvement on his £60,000-a-week ($75,735) agreement.
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Ramsdale has started all 35 league games this season, keeping 13 clean sheets — only Manchester United‘s David de Gea (15) has registered a higher number.
He excelled once again in Sunday’s 2-0 win at Newcastle United which moved Arsenal to within one point of leaders Manchester City, albeit having played a game more.
A formal announcement over Ramsdale’s deal is expected soon and his rise to prominence is a dramatic shift from the negativity around his move in the summer of 2021.
Ramsdale arrived from Sheffield United for an initial £24 million ($30.29m) only to face a backlash from some supporters. The goalkeeper later said he turned the comments off on his Instagram and Twitter posts to cut out the online trolls with “idiots telling me not to sign, threats trying to scare me saying ‘we know where you live.'”
However, Ramsdale quickly usurped Bernd Leno as first-choice and won Arsenal supporters over with his energy, enthusiasm and quality — a transformation aided further by the goalkeeper and his father, Nick, becoming stars of the Amazon: All or Nothing documentary on Arsenal released last year.
