Bernd Leno may be the newest member of our squad, but he won’t be a total stranger when he walks into the dressing room for the first time.

Our new goalkeeper has played alongside Mesut Ozil and Shkodran Mustafi for Germany, and actually came up through his country’s youth ranks with the latter.

“I already know Musti and Mesut Ozil from the national team, plus Xhaka, Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan from the Bundesliga,” Leno told Arsenal Player. “I talked to Musti about Arsenal many months ago.

“He said it’s a fantastic club with a fantastic stadium and fantastic fans. I watched games on the TV in Germany and yes, Arsenal is a fantastic club.

“I’ve known Musti for about 10 or 11 years. We grew up together in the youth national teams, the under-17s through to the under-21s. It’s funny to see us together at Arsenal now!”

Having played against Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for the last five seasons, Leno is looking forward to being on the same team as our No 14.

“Yes, it will be special because in the past I’ve always played against him,” he added. “He’s so fast and as a goalkeeper you have to respect his qualities, his speed. Now we’ll train together and I hope he’ll score for us.”

German goalkeeper Bernd Leno has agreed to join us from Bayer Leverkusen.

The highly-rated 26-year-old made more than 230 appearances for Leverkusen in more than seven seasons with the Bundesliga side.
 
Spending most of his youth career at Stuttgart, Leno signed for Leverkusen in 2011 and that September became the youngest goalkeeper to feature in a Champions League match at the age of just 19 years and 193 days, during Leverkusen’s group-stage game against Chelsea.
 
A Germany international, Bernd received his first senior international call-up in 2015 and has since won six caps for his country. Last year he was part of the Germany squad that won the 2017 Confederations Cup.
 
Head coach Unai Emery said: “We are very pleased that Bernd Leno will be joining us. Bernd is a goalkeeper of high quality and experience. He has been a top performer and regular number one goalkeeper with Leverkusen in the Bundesliga for the past seven years. We are all excited that Bernd has chosen Arsenal Football Club and look forward to start working with him in pre-season.”
 
Bernd has spoken to Arsenal Media about his move - you can watch the interview here. Bernd’s shirt number will be announced in due course.
 
The deal is subject to the completion of regulatory processes.