{"id":287152,"date":"2025-07-24T05:53:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T05:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/287152\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T05:53:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T05:53:13","slug":"why-rafael-leao-went-over-to-declan-rice-during-ac-milan-clash-amid-arsenal-transfer-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/287152\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Rafael Leao went over to Declan Rice during AC Milan clash amid Arsenal transfer links"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Arsenal defeated AC Milan in Singapore earlier on Wednesday thanks to a solitary strike from Bukayo Saka.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Gunners lifted the Tridentity Cup after the 1-0 win over AC Milan, where Arsenal<\/a> fans were treated to a first glimpse of Martin Zubimendi<\/a> in action, as well as Christian Norgaard.<\/p>\n

There was also a sighting of Rafael Leao<\/a> for the Italian giants, and the Portugal international put on a real show for supporters with plenty of flicks and tricks.<\/p>\n

During one break in play, the Portugal international was filmed walking over to speak to Declan Rice<\/a> and other Arsenal players, a moment which got fans talking amid transfer links to the AC Milan star.<\/p>\n

Rafael Leao and Declan Rice are close friends<\/p>\n

Foot Mercato claimed that Arsenal held talks with Leao<\/a> earlier this summer as Mikel Arteta and Andrea Berta attempt to sign a new wide attacker.<\/p>\n

Therefore, when the AC Milan No.10 approached Arsenal players for a chat in Singapore \u2013 as you can see below \u2013 it understandably got fans talking.<\/p>\n

However, we believe it was just a little exchange between friends, as the 26-year-old and the Arsenal No.41 are known to be close.<\/p>\n

Back in July 2023, Rice was spotted training with Leao<\/a> in Portugal during pre-season, as the pair got their fitness up to speed alongside Bruno Fernandes and Joao Cancelo.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

There is more.<\/p>\n

Rice and Leao have also chatted on Instagram<\/a> before, with the Portuguese attacker supportive of the England international, sending him encouraging emojis in the comments of his posts.<\/p>\n

Arsenal have already signed a friend of Declan Rice this summer<\/p>\n

Togetherness within a squad is arguably one of the most important components of a successful football team, and Arteta is building several connections within his side.<\/p>\n

Mikel Merino and Zubimendi are already close<\/a>, having played for Real Sociedad and Spain together over the years.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Kepa Arrizabalaga and Kai Havertz are pals<\/a> too after their stint at Chelsea together.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Noni Madueke is good friends with Rice<\/a> and Bukayo Saka, so the \u00a352m arrival from Chelsea should have no bother settling in at the Emirates Stadium either. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal defeated AC Milan in Singapore earlier on Wednesday thanks to a solitary strike from Bukayo Saka. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[161,2920,162,94,8637,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-287152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-arsenal","9":"tag-declan-rice","10":"tag-english-premier-league","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-rafael-leao","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114906661151753600","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}