Arsenal’s summer signing Bernd Leno has been handed the number 19 shirt ahead of the Gunners’ upcoming pre-season tour of Singapore.
The Germany international joined the Gunners from Bayer Leverkusen earlier last month but the club had not confirmed his squad number for the 2018/19 season.
However, it has now been revealed that the 26-year-old will don the number 19 jersey for the upcoming campaign and this reflects the same date when he joined the club – June 19.
Meanwhile, Leno also made his first-team debut at the age of 19 when he was on loan at Leverkusen from Stuttgart and hopefully, the shirt number bring him happy memories in the coming years.
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) July 9, 2018
Leno is likely to start between the sticks during Arsenal’s league opener versus Manchester City on August 12 but before that, there should be some movements in terms of the back-up options behind him.
Both Petr Cech and David Ospina have been linked with possible exits from the Emirates Stadium but judging by the former’s recent comments, Ospina appears the most likelier to leave the club.
Cech had received the offer of being Napoli’s number one shortly after the departure of Pepe Reina but the 36-year-old has recently confirmed that he has turned down the approach with his aim of competing for the number one role next term.
On the other hand, Ospina has been of strong interest to Turkish club Fenerbahce in recent weeks and it seems very likely that he will leave the Gunners after becoming presumably the third-choice shot-stopper for next season.
