William Saliba said he always had his heart set on staying with Arsenal after ending speculation over his future by signing a new long-term contract on Tuesday.
The France defender has put pen to paper on a reported five-year deal, which will keep him at the Premier League club until 2030.
Saliba, whose previous contract was due to run until 2027, extended his stay at the Emirates Stadium despite reports of interest from Real Madrid.
The 24-year-old is the latest player to commit his future to the Gunners following new deals for fellow centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes, Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly.
“I knew that I wanted to stay here for more years so I was not really focused on other clubs,” he told reporters on the eve of Arsenal’s Champions League match against Olympiakos.
“So I’m happy to be here and sign a new deal to focus on my club.”
The centre-back joined the Gunners in 2019 but had three loan spells before establishing himself as a regular in Mikel Arteta’s team during the 2022/23 season.
Since then he has been at the heart of an Arsenal side that has finished second in each of the past three seasons in the Premier League.
“Of course sometimes you have some doubts, you say ‘Yeah maybe I will never play for this club’ but at the end I told myself that I cannot leave this club without playing and I didn’t give up,” Saliba said.
“I went on loan, I played games, I came back here and I started almost every game so yeah I’m so proud of myself.”
Arteta said he was delighted that the “phenomenal” Saliba had joined others in committing their futures to the club.
“They feel that they belong to this club, they feel very attached to it and they share the same ambition with the club,” he said.
“Obviously they feel valued, they feel loved here and they want to continue their careers here, which is great.”
The Arsenal boss said there had been “great energy” in the squad since his team’s dramatic 2-1 win at Newcastle on Sunday, which lifted them just two points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool.
The Gunners are looking for a second straight win in the league phase of the Champions League after beating Athletic Bilbao 2-0 in their opening match.
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