On Thursday, August 29, Bournemouth confirmed the signing of Chelsea’s goal-keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga on a season-long loan deal. The move to Bournemouth, the English club in the south coast, came after Kepa Arrizabalaga signed a one-year extension of his contract with Chelsea last week, which was due to expire at the close of the 2024-25 football season.
Notably, Kepa Arrizabalaga is the most expensive goal-keeper in the world after he moved to Chelsea for a £71 million contract from his boyhood club Athletic Bilbao in 2018. In the last season, the Spaniard was loaned out to Real Madrid, where he made 20 appearances and won the La Liga and the UEFA Champions League after replacing injured Thibaut Courtois.
I am so ready to be here and play in front of our fans: Kepa Arrizabalaga on Bournemouth fans
In a video on the YouTube channel of Bournemouth, Kepa Arrizabalaga spoke about the club’s manager Andoni Iraola, with whom he played alongside, at Athletic Bilbao. He was quoted as saying, “I know Andoni Iraola well, so of course that was a big reason for coming here, he spoke very well about everything here.”
“I am so ready to be here and play in front of our fans. Hopefully we can win something and it could be a great year,” the Spaniard further added.
“We are delighted to bring a player of Kepa’s calibre to AFC Bournemouth. We were aware of his availability and were keen to take the opportunity to bring him to the club on loan. We believe he will be an exciting addition to our talented goalkeeping department,” said the Chief Executive of Bournemouth, Neill Blake.