Official: Colombia Goalkeeper David Ospina to Sign for Arsenal

Colombia and Nice goalkeeper David Ospina will sign with Arsenal on a long term contract, with the transfer fee thought to be in the region of £3m.

The official club website confirms that Ospina, 25, will join up with the squad shortly and is expected to make his debut for the club in the Emirates Cup that takes place next weekend.

Ospina has collected 189 appearances in a six year stint at Nice, and is only available on such a cut price basis due to having a single year left on his contract. After impressing during Colombia’s quarter final run in Brazil 2014, it was widely predicted that he would move on to a bigger club. He currently has 49 caps for his country.

Arsene Wenger, when talking about his new signing, said: “David Ospina is an excellent goalkeeper, with good experience and a proven record of performing with Nice and Colombia. He will add strength to our squad and we are very pleased that he will be joining us.”

Though it looks like he is set to start on the bench for Arsenal, he has the capacity to challenge Wojciech Szczesny for the number 1 spot. Wenger has shown in the past he is not against dropping Szczesny if he is off form. It will create an interesting battle for the starting spot for this season at the Emirates.

Ospina joins Alexis Sanchez and Mathieu Debuchy as Arsenal’s third senior summer signing, with rumors of Calum Chambers’ arrival from Southampton now being reported by many reliable journalists, including the BBC.

You can follow Jordan Willis on Twitter @JMWillis01