Arsenal close to deal for Nice keeper Ospina

Colombia's goalkeeper David Ospina makes a save during the quarter-final football match between Brazil and Colombia at the Castelao Stadium in Fortaleza during the 2014 FIFA World Cup on July 4, 2014. -- PHOTO: AFP
Colombia's goalkeeper David Ospina makes a save during the quarter-final football match between Brazil and Colombia at the Castelao Stadium in Fortaleza during the 2014 FIFA World Cup on July 4, 2014. -- PHOTO: AFP

MARSEILLE (AFP) - Arsenal are close to reaching an agreement to sign Colombia goalkeeper David Ospina from Nice for a reported €4 million (S$6.7 million), the French club's president confirmed on Sunday.

"There isn't an agreement yet, but we're not far away," Nice president Jean-Pierre Rivere told AFP.

The two clubs are understood to have reached a verbal agreement over the transfer, according to a source close to the Ligue 1 outfit, but the move has yet to be finalised.

Ospina, 25, has spent the past six seasons with Nice and was part of the Colombia side that reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Brazil for the first time in the country's history.

Ospina would provide competition for Arsenal's incumbent number one and Poland international Wojciech Szczesny.

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