Arsenal sends initial €35 million offer to Ajax for Jurriën Timber

English football club Arsenal made a first offer of 30 million pounds, or roughly 35 million euros, to acquire Ajax defender Jurriën Timber, according to The Athletic. The offer is well short of the 55 million euros the Amsterdam club was hoping to get for their player, said Voetbal Primeur.

Dutch and international media outlets have reported that Timber has approved a transfer to Arsenal. He could wind up being the first transfer from Ajax since the team’s third place finish last season, the Amsterdam club’s worst season in 14 years.

The expectation is that Arsenal will raise their offer closer to what Ajax demands, despite the team’s suboptimal finish in which they missed out on entering the Champions League, and wound up losing in the Dutch Cup final.

Arsenal finished second in the English Premier League and will take part in the next Champions League season. They were knocked out in the fourth round of the FA Cup with a 1-0 loss to Manchester City in January.

The 22-year-old started with Utrecht football club DVSU before moving to the Feyenoord youth program in 2008 with his brother, Quintin. The two together made the jump to Ajax, with Jurriën signing a deal with Eerste Divisie side Jong Ajax in 2018.

Two years later, he had a contract with the Amsterdam team’s Eredivisie club. He has played 85 total matches for Ajax in the top Dutch league, scoring six times. Timber has also consistently played for the Dutch national teams at different age groups, including 15 appearances for the main men’s team since 2020.