Arsenal have submitted an opening offer of £22m for sought-after Lille centre-back Gabriel, claims ESPN.
Gabriel has been heavily linked with moves to Everton, Napoli and Manchester United this season after a promising campaign in Ligue 1.
Everton thought they had wrapped up a deal for the 22-year-old before the coronavirus pandemic only for the outbreak to put the brakes on talks.
Napoli want to sign Gabriel as Kalidou Koulibaly's replacement but shifting the 29-year-old has proved surprisingly problematic.
Centre-backs with best tackle success rate (40+ tackles completed in Europe's top five leagues)
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) August 12, 2020
🥇 Francesco Acerbi (Lazio) - 90.8%
🥈 Gabriel (Lille) - 85.4%
🥉 Alexander Djiku (Strasbourg) - 85.2% pic.twitter.com/QUB4TIXtcS
It has opened the door for Arsenal to move clear in the race for his signature, as Mikel Arteta plans to overhaul the club's defensive options.
Having already signed Saint-Etienne ace William Saliba, talks are now at an advanced stage to sign Gabriel.
Lille conceded 29.6% of their total league goals in 2019/20 in the five matches Gabriel didn't start and the Brazil Under-20 international has a tackle success rate of 85.4% - second of all centre-backs in Europe's top five leagues of players that completed at least 40.
We need him and more important houssem aouar, boss arteta