Arsenal appoint Barcelona´s Sanllehi as head of football relations

Arsenal have announced the appointment of Raul Sanllehi as the club’s new head of football relations, the executive moving to the Premier League from Barcelona.

Sanllehi, director of football at Barca and credited with bringing Neymar to the club, will relocate to the Emirates Stadium in February to take up his new role.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Arsenal said Sanllehi will “lead future player negotiations and work alongside manager Arsene Wenger, chief executive Ivan Gazidis and contract negotiator Huss Fahmy.

“He will also represent and support the club with international and domestic governing bodies.”

The appointment of Sanllehi comes as part of a shake-up behind the scenes at Arsenal, who last week brought in Sven Mislintat to lead the club’s player recruitment operations.

“In the past three years we have supplemented our team with more top-class expertise across every aspect of our football operations,” said Gazidis.

“Raul’s appointment is another important step in developing the infrastructure we need at the club to take everything we do to the next level.

“Raul has extensive contacts across the football world and has been directly involved in some of the biggest transfers in Europe in recent years. We look forward to him bringing that expertise to Arsenal.”