Arsenal have announced that they have signed Piero Hincapie from Bayer Leverkusen on a permanent deal
14:00, 25 Jun 2026Updated 14:00, 25 Jun 2026
Arsenal have completed the permanent signing of Piero Hincapie from Bayer Leverkusen
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Arsenal have completed the permanent signing of Piero Hincapie from Bayer Leverkusen
Arsenal have completed the permanent signing of Piero Hincapie from Bayer Leverkusen. The defender will arrive for approximately €40million (£34.5million) plus add-ons and has signed a deal until 2031, football.london understands - and it will be made official on July 1.
The Gunners signed the Ecuador international on loan from Bayer Leverkusen last season in the wake of Jakub Kiwior’s switch to FC Porto.
The Polish international’s deal included an option to make the move permanent this summer for €17million (£14.7million) plus €5million (£4.3million) in add-ons.
Both moves were similar in that Arsenal, Porto and Bayer Leverkusen had agreed that the respective deals would see their options exercised despite the clauses not being obligatory.
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This was clever on Arsenal’s part because an obligatory clause would have seen the payment for Hincapie’s deal be included on this season’s financial books. However, because the clause is optional, even with an agreement, the deal would still become permanent; it will instead show up on next season’s books.
Arsenal have wanted to work comfortably within the financial frameworks of the Premier League and UEFA. The Premier League has now changed its Financial Fair Play system to move away from Profit and Sustainability Regulations and instead to a similar model used by UEFA, the Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) system.
Arsenal have been working to UEFA’s 70% SCR for many seasons now and with the Premier League’s system operating at 85% SCR, the changes will not impact the Gunners all that greatly.
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However, after spending around £250million on seven players last summer before the addition of Hincapie in combination with a lack of player sales, it was thought that to get the deal done for Hincapie, not only would Kiwior have to move on, but the deal would need to be structured to allow the club to remain comfortably compliant with the rules.
Hincapie, therefore, will become the club’s first summer signing ahead of the 2026/27 season. Yet more big deals are expected, but there is hope that player sales will bring in significantly more this summer, allowing the freedom to invest.