Andrea Berta, the former Atletico Madrid transfer guru, is believed to be among the potential candidates to replace Edu Gaspar as Arsenal’s sporting director.
The process of finding a replacement for Edu, who left the club in November, remains ongoing but is now entering its final stages. Sources insist that a final decision has not yet been made.
Interim sporting director Jason Ayto is another candidate for the role and is known to be a well-regarded figure at Arsenal, where he has risen through the ranks since first joining as a scout.
Former Newcastle United and Manchester United director Dan Ashworth is also thought to be in the mix, while former Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky has said he is “aware” that he features on the club’s radar.
Italian reports have said that Berta, who is Italian, was also in contention for the role of sporting director at AC Milan but that he now will not be joining the Serie A club.
Berta started his career in football at Italian side AC Carpenedolo before moving on to Parma and then Genoa. In 2013 he was appointed the technical director at Atletico, before he was then promoted to sporting director in the summer of 2017.
During Berta’s time at the Spanish club, where he worked with long-serving manager Diego Simeone, Atletico won the Copa del Rey, two league titles, the Spanish Super Cup, the Europa League and the Uefa Super Cup.
Among the most eye-catching transfer deals he struck as sporting director was the purchase of Rodri from Villarreal for around £20 million in 2018. Rodri was then sold to Manchester City for more than £60 million a year later.
During his time as sporting director, Atletico also completed deals for players such as Joao Felix, Kieran Trippier, Luis Suarez, Julian Alvarez and Conor Gallagher.
Under Berta’s watch, Atletico sold Antoine Griezmann to Barcelona for £107 million and then re-signed the France forward for around £17 million. Atletico also sold Matheus Cunha to Wolves in a deal worth £44 million, having signed the Brazilian for around £20 million.
Berta was named ‘sporting director of the year’ at the Globe Soccer awards in 2019.
