How much Arsenal made from Marquinhos transfer exit as Andrea Berta’s budget increases

Add as preferred source on Google

Marquinhos’ time at Arsenal has come to an end, with the Brazilian winger returning to his home nation to join Cruzeiro on a permanent deal.

The Gunners signed Marquinhos for around £3 million back in the summer of 2022, bought by previous sporting director Edu Gaspar as a prospect signing.

Featuring six times for the Gunners in his first six months in North London, the youngster was shipped out to Norwich City on loan in January 2023.

Failing to make an impression at Carrow Road, he’s since endured relatively underwhelming temporary stints at Nantes and Fluminense.

Marquinhos has enjoyed a slightly more positive spell at Cruzeiro so far this year, and the Brazilian Serie A side have decided to put an end to his Arsenal career by acquiring him on a full-time basis.

• READ MORE: Confirmed Arsenal summer 2025 transfer ins and outs, signings and done deals

How much have Arsenal earned from Marquinhos sale?

Marquinhos was once compared to Serge Gnabry, which speaks to the level of quality people felt he had within him.

However, he hasn’t quite developed in the way Edu would’ve hoped when the sporting director brought him to N5, and his European career has since tailed off.

While the signing may have failed from a footballing standpoint, it’s not ultimately going to cost the Gunners anything.

According to the Standard, Arsenal will receive £2.5 million from Cruzeiro for Marquinhos.

This means the Gunners will ultimately only make a loss of around £500,000 on the player, while Andrea Berta will have an additional £2.5 million to add to his transfer kitty.

Arsenal need to take more punts on South American players

Edu underutilised his Brazilian connections, only bringing Martinelli and Marquinhos from Brazilian football to North London throughout his time at the Emirates.

However, the South American market has some exceptionally talented youngsters available for very modest fees, and Arsenal need to take advantage of this more.

As shown by the Marquinhos deal, the risk is relatively small given the low initial fee and the fact that the South American leagues generally are willing to take them back for close to what you paid for them.

The Gunners shouldn’t solely be relying on talent to emerge from Hale End, and should instead be looking to this continent to find future stars on a more regular basis.

It could save Arsenal millions in the transfer market moving forward.