Arsenal parted ways with Nicolas Pepe by terminating his contract.

European soccer transfer market expert Fabricio Romano said on his SNS on the 10th (Korean time), “Pepe is leaving Arsenal as a free agent (FA). The termination of the contract was announced by a club statement. He is a short-term contract and will play in the Türkrey League. He joined Trabzonspor.”안전놀이터

Pepe is a winger from Ivory Coast. His movements and elasticity, typical of his African roots, stand out, and his strength is his mid-distance shooting based on powerful kicks. After excelling in the French league, he joined Arsenal in 2019. Arsenal invested 80 million euros (about 114.4 billion won) to recruit him. This remained Arsenal’s club record until Declan Rice broke it this summer.

He had high expectations. Arsenal consistently used Pepe. 40 games including cup competitions. It was enough time to show something.

But this was a vain hope. Pepe’s strengths that he showed in France were not revealed at all in England. In his first season, he recorded 8 goals and 10 assists for offensive points. Looking at his record alone, it wasn’t bad, but considering the transfer fee, better performance was needed.

Fans and the club were patient and hoped he would ‘rebound’. However, his position gradually decreased. Although his attack points increased in the 2020-21 season, his performance was still below expectations, and in the 2021-22 season, he was completely reduced to a non-power resource.

In the end, it became a ‘subject for sale’. In the 2022-23 season, he went on loan to OGC Nice in France. Here he seemed to come to life little by little. He appeared in 28 games, including cup competitions, scoring 8 goals and 1 assist. Nevertheless, Arsenal deleted Pepe from their plans. Pepe, who was completely ignored, sought to escape Arsenal this summer. He was originally close to a move to Besiktas in the Turkic League, but it did not materialize and Trabzonspor became his destination.

His expected transfer fee was 5 million euros (about 7.1 billion won). The amount was far short of the amount invested by Arsenal. But I didn’t even receive this amount. Arsenal completely terminated the contract, and Pepe left Arsenal ‘without a transfer fee’ as a free agent. The 80 million euros spent on his recruitment has been completely wiped out.