Arsenal have followed their signing of Leandro Trossard with the arrival of 22-year-old Spezia Calcio centre-back, Jakub Kiwior. The Polish international has joined the Gunners on a long-term contract for a reported fee of £17.5 million.
Mikel Arteta was delighted for the defender to be joining his squad, saying: “It’s great that Jakub is joining us. He’s a young versatile defender who has shown huge potential and qualities with Spezia in Serie A, and also at international level with Poland.
“Jakub is a player who will give us strength and quality to our defensive unit. We welcome Jakub and his family to Arsenal and look forward to working with him.”
Arsenal Announce Signing of Polish Centre-Back Jakub Kiwior
Jakub Kiwior 🤝 The Arsenal
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) January 23, 2023
Who is Jakub Kiwior?
Despite being relatively unknown in England, the defender arrives with a good reputation. During his time at Spezia, he made a total of 43 appearances and also made four appearances for Poland at the Qatar World Cup.
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In addition to being able to play centre-back, which is his preferred role, the defender can also be deployed in the defensive midfield position. This is largely due to his excellent ability on the ball, which actually improves his suitability to an Arteta side, who demands that his defenders are comfortable on the ball under pressure.
Here’s Jakub Kiwior signing contract as new Arsenal player together with his agents Pawel Zimonczyk and Sasha Huet-Baranov ⚪️🔴✍🏻 #AFC
Kiwior will earn £3m gross per season until June 2028. pic.twitter.com/yufIFvWlgE
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) January 23, 2023
What Role Will Kiwior Have?
Given the fact that the 22-year-old is a left-footed left-sided centre-back, it is likely that he will provide some much-needed competition for Gabriel Magalhaes’ spot in Arteta’s starting lineup.
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The Gunners have plenty of options in this area – Rob Holding, Benjamin White and Takehiro Tomiyasu can all play at centre-back, but they are all right-footed and therefore struggle to effectively play out from the back when deployed on the left-hand side. As a result, Gabriel has been forced to play every single Premier League minute this season, as well as the majority of the side’s cup games too.
The arrival of Kiwior will therefore allow Arteta to afford the Brazilian some well-earned rest and will strengthen the depth of the Arsenal squad as a whole.
