{"id":566397,"date":"2020-09-21T13:28:53","date_gmt":"2020-09-21T17:28:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=566397"},"modified":"2026-01-30T16:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T21:38:07","slug":"arsenal-sign-icelandic-goalkeeper-runar-alex-runarsson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/09\/21\/arsenal-sign-icelandic-goalkeeper-runar-alex-runarsson\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal Sign Icelandic Goalkeeper Runar Alex Runarsson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/arsenal\/\" target=\"_self\">Arsenal<\/a> have announced their fifth signing of the summer, confirming the arrival of Icelandic goalkeeper Runar Alex Runarsson.<\/p>\n<h2>Runar Alex Runarsson Joins Arsenal<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">New club. New country. New number.<\/p>\n<p>Alex Runarsson. Our No 13 \ud83e\udd1d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gqLydIHQvL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/gqLydIHQvL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Arsenal (@Arsenal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Arsenal\/status\/1308089607876227072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 21, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Second-Choice to Bernd Leno<\/h3>\n<p>The Icelandic will provide valuable competition to Arsenal&#8217;s first-choice goalkeeper Bernd Leno.<\/p>\n<p>Mikel Arteta has been searching for a second-choice goalkeeper for much of the summer. Former Arsenal &#8216;keeper <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/09\/16\/emiliano-martinez-completes-aston-villa-move\/\" target=\"_self\">Emiliano Martinez<\/a> made it clear earlier in the window that he wanted first-team football and if he could not get it at The Emirates, then he would be move elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, the Gunners boss allowed Martinez to join <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/aston-villa-club-news-analysis-fixtures\/\" target=\"_self\">Aston Villa<\/a>, but remained prepared for his departure.<\/p>\n<p>The Gunners <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/09\/17\/report-arsenal-see-10-million-rejected-by-brentford-for-david-raya\/\" target=\"_self\">have<\/a> shown interest in Brentford goalkeeper David Raya. While the Spaniard could still yet make the move across London, it is Runarsson who they have signed as competition for now.<\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old joins form French Ligue 1 side Dijon, where he shared the first-team spot with fellow goalkeeper Alfred Gomis. He made 14 appearances in all competitions last season, conceding just 26 times.<\/p>\n<p>Runarsson began his senior career with Danish club FC Nordsj\u00e6lland, after joining their academy in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>He was integrated into the first-team slowly, again sharing the starting spot with fellow goalkeeper Indy Groothuizen in the 2016\/17 season.<\/p>\n<p>However, the following year saw him named the undisputed first-choice in goal. He made 36 appearances, conceding 58 goals and keeping six clean sheets; he was awarded the Player of the Year for his performances.<\/p>\n<h3>May Get More Game Time Than Expected<\/h3>\n<p>With games coming thick and fast in multiple competitions this season for Arsenal, the Icelandic international may get more game time than expected at Arsenal.<\/p>\n<p>Arteta will be keen to preserve the fitness of Bernd Leno, especially after his injury towards the end of last season. As a result, Runarsson may become the Gunners&#8217; designated &#8216;cup competitions&#8217; goalkeeper, which has become a common occurrence among top six clubs in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"9ugfIHr8TZJyF_c-yGxrRg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1204217357\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'9ugfIHr8TZJyF_c-yGxrRg',sig:'wAv3X5PQP6dA0aZKLe2lm98Bb37ynSY08UZDeSfxlSQ=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1204217357',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arsenal have announced their fifth signing of the summer, confirming the arrival of Icelandic goalkeeper Runar Alex Runarsson. Runar Alex Runarsson Joins Arsenal &nbsp; New club. New country. New number. Alex Runarsson. Our No 13 \ud83e\udd1d pic.twitter.com\/gqLydIHQvL \u2014 Arsenal (@Arsenal) September 21, 2020 Second-Choice to Bernd Leno The Icelandic will provide valuable competition to Arsenal&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2795,"featured_media":566414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,7,30,3,28],"tags":[32739,32738,4316,40,6661,136],"class_list":["post-566397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-arsenal","category-ligue-1","category-news","category-premier-league","category-transfers","tag-arsenal","tag-arsenal-fixtures","tag-dijon","tag-premier-league","tag-runar-alex-runarsson","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":664362,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566397\/revisions\/664362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}