Atlético Madrid has offered Ghanaian midfielder Thomas Partey a new deal until 2025 in the hope of fending off bids from rival clubs, including Arsenal.
The Premier League club has expressed the strongest interest so far in the 26-year-old Ghanaian. Arsenal has yet to submit an official bid although they have made contact with the player’s agent.
Partey has a release clause of €50m (£43.6m) and the Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, is keen to add him to his squad in the summer.
Atlético’s new offer, however, would double Partey’s current salary of £65,000 a week and increase the release clause to more than €100m (£87.2m).
The Atlético manager, Diego Simeone, is desperate to keep Partey, whose current deal runs out in 2023, at the club and has urged the hierarchy to offer him a deal that would enable him to stay.
Partey has been with the club since 2013. Atlético is sixth in La Liga, 13 points behind Barcelona, but through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League after eliminating the holders Liverpool in the last 16.