Arsenal set a £30 million asking price on Gabriel Jesus as Juventus and AC Milan run into the wage wall
Arsenal will listen to Serie A offers for Gabriel Jesus this summer, but his £265,000-a-week salary is the obstacle Juventus and AC Milan have to clear before any move starts to look real.
May 18, 2026
Arsenal have set a £30 million asking price on Gabriel Jesus and will listen to Serie A offers this summer, with Juventus and AC Milan both circling. The same reports that put the price tag in print this weekend also flag the obstacle that has stalled every Italian conversation so far: a £265,000-a-week wage packet that neither club can comfortably match. The Brazilian’s exit from north London is starting to look likely. The destination is harder to call.
Jesus has not been first choice at the Emirates this season. His Premier League minutes have been limited, his goal tally is in low single figures across all competitions, and a recurring run of knee setbacks has kept him out of the rotation for long stretches. Viktor Gyokeres and Kai Havertz are now both ahead of him in Mikel Arteta’s striker pecking order. Arsenal want to free up the wage budget to push for Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez, which is the move pulling the rest of the chain.
The Serie A queue
AC Milan opened talks earlier this month, according to reports out of Italy, although a separate update later in May said no formal contact had reached the club from Jesus’s side. Juventus have made their interest clear without committing to an opening bid. The 29-year-old changed agents recently, a move that usually signals a player ready to listen, and the £30 million Arsenal want is well below what Serie A clubs typically have to find for a Premier League starter.
The wage gap is what slows everything down. £265,000 a week works out to around €305,000 in Italy, and the tax breaks that used to soften the gap for foreign signings have been pared back. Milan’s current top earners sit closer to half that figure. Juventus, working under their own salary cap discipline, are not far off. Either move only happens if Jesus agrees to a meaningful cut, which is the conversation his new agent is presumably being paid to have.
Why Arsenal are pushing
The Alvarez chase is the headline reason. The 26-year-old Argentine has been on Arteta’s list since last year, and Atletico need reinvestment funds of their own to make a sale work. Pulling that off in one window means cashing in on Jesus, possibly Havertz, and finding a buyer willing to absorb the wage structures Arsenal want off the books.
Jesus’s contract runs to June 2027, so Arsenal still have a year to negotiate from rather than a deadline to sell into. £30 million is the lowest figure they will start with. Whether anyone gets close depends less on the fee and more on what salary Jesus is prepared to accept to leave the Premier League. The Serie A market has seen plenty of stars sit out a summer waiting for a Premier League rival to break ranks. That option will still be there in August.