4 months ago
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Joshua Zirkzee has refused to rule out the prospect of leaving Bologna this summer following interest from Arsenal.
The 23-year-old has impressed at Bologna this season, scoring 11 goals in Serie A to help the club secure a fifth-placed finish and qualification for the Champions League next term.
Arsenal, meanwhile, are in the market for a new striker this summer and Zirkzee is understood to be on the club’s shortlist alongside Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak.
Zirkzee is available for €40 million (£34m) this summer due to a release clause in his deal with Bologna.
And the Dutch forward, who joined the Serie A club for £7m (€8.5m) from Bayern Munich in August 2022, has suggested he could move on.
‘At the moment my head is only in Bologna,’ Zirkzee said in an interview with Corriere Di Bologna.
‘I want to recover from the injury and have some nice holidays in the United States with my childhood friends and then we’ll see what happens.’
Asked what he would do if given the choice to leave Bologna this summer, Zirkzee replied: ‘I would choose the best for the club. I will only do what makes sense in my heart.’
When asked if would feel different playing for another Champions League team instead of Bologna next season, Zirkzee said: ‘Exactly, that’s what I said and I’ll repeat it. It’s clear that for me it would be wonderful to defend this goal we achieved together. What we experienced in Piazza Maggiore was unforgettable.’
Zirkzee also credited Bologna for his development and teammate Lorenzo De Silvestri for singling him out as one of the potential leaders in the squad.
‘I arrived here leaving Bayern Munich. I was excited to come to Bologna because I wanted to play. The championship was of a high level, I wanted to compete,’ Zirkzee said.
‘The club already had a clear vision of what it wanted to do – compete to qualify for Europe. However, no one could have ever thought that this season could go like this. There was the idea of being able to enter Europe, but step by step, not directly into the Champions League.
‘At a certain point in the season, however, we said to ourselves, ‘who cares, let’s go to the Champions League, if we have to conquer Europe, let’s take the biggest prize’. The direction of the club has always been that, but honestly no one expects to get there so quickly.
‘I’m a better player, for sure. A season like this earns you a lot of points, also in terms of experience. I have to share everything with my teammates, fantastic people, the group is before everything.
‘If I tried to become a leader I owe it to Lollo De Silvestri. He came to me and he said, ‘you have the skills to be a leader’. I studied his behaviour, he is the heart of the team.
‘We have a young and hungry group, everyone is a leader in their own way. We all took turns being captains, it is proof that when we are called to lead the group we are capable of doing so. We are not individuals.’
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