The deal beats the 50mn euros that Arsenal paid to bring Mesut Ozil to the Emirates from Real Madrid in 2013, while it sees Lyon break their highest sale for the second time in a month after seeing midfielder Corentin Tolisso move to Bayern Munich for 47.5mn euros.
Arsenal said the 26-year-old had signed a “long-term contract”. According to reports, he will earn bumper £200,000-per-week deal that will make him the top earner at the Emirates.
“We are very happy to have Alexandre join our group. He has shown over a number of years that he can score goals and that he is a very efficient finisher,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said in a statement. “As well, he has very interesting technical qualities and a strong character. So he is a guy who is a great addition for us, and someone who will help us challenge at the top level this season.”
He had been at Lyon since the age of 12, and scored 129 goals for the senior team, including 100 in Ligue 1. Lacazette, who has made 11 international appearances for France, last season became the first player to score 20 goals or more in three successive French top-flight seasons since Jean-Pierre Papin in 1992.
“I am very pleased with the success of Alexandre, who, besides being one of Olympique Lyon’s best-ever strikers, is a charming player who I became very close to,” said Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas in his club’s statement.
Lacazette will be hoping that the move to Arsenal can help boost his hopes of cementing a place in the France squad ahead of next year’s World Cup, having only played one international in the last two years. The north London club will be expecting Lacazette to add some much-needed firepower up front, after a disappointing fifth-placed finish in the Premier League last term that saw them miss out on the Champions League for the first time in 19 years. He scored 37 goals in all competitions last season, including 28 in just 30 league games.
Lacazette is expected to travel with his Arsenal team-mates to Sydney on Sunday for the first part of the club’s pre-season preparations. A number of teams had registered an interest in Lacazette, who has 11 caps and was contracted to Lyon until 2019 after graduating through their exceptional academy system.
The player had expressed a desire to join Atletico Madrid, having deemed the time right to further his career by departing Ligue 1, but the Spanish club’s transfer ban, which stands until January 2018, complicated their pursuit and allowed Arsenal to steal a march on the 26-year-old’s other suitors.
The striker, who has scored a century of league goals for Lyon in 203 appearances, is eager to make his mark at club level before the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia. Lacazette had hoped to play in the Champions League next season, a competition for which Arsenal have failed to qualify after finishing fifth, but that disappointment could be eased by evidence of the club’s renewed ambition in the market under Wenger this summer.
Meanwhile, the signing puts the Arsenal future of Olivier Giroud in doubt. The former Montpellier front-man is currently above Lacazette in France coach Didier Deschamps’ pecking order, but he could now struggle to find a place in Wenger’s Gunners starting XI under pressure from his compatriot.
Giroud has been linked with possible moves to both Everton and West Ham United. But Arsenal supporters will be delighted to see Wenger spending big, as they look to mount a serious challenge on a first league title since ‘the Invincibles’ lifted the Premier League trophy in 2004.