Arsenal have confirmed their first summer exit ahead of the transfer window, with Karl Hein set to complete a permanent move to Bundesliga side Werder Bremen in July 2026. The 24-year-old goalkeeper spent the 2025-26 campaign on loan in Germany and is now due to make that switch permanent.
The move will bring Arsenal around €3m, or about £2.6m, for a player who was due to become a free agent on June 30. Arsenal said Hein would complete the transfer subject to regulatory processes and thanked him for his contribution during his time at the club.
Hein’s route to this point has been long and mostly spent away from the first team. He joined Arsenal’s Under-18s from Nomme United in 2018, went on to play 41 matches for the Under-21s, and made his competitive senior debut in the 2022-23 EFL Cup third round against Brighton & Hove Albion. That night ended in a 3-1 defeat, with Hein shipping three goals, and he did not make another appearance for Mikel Arteta’s side after that.
His spell at Werder Bremen offered a brief run of first-team football. Hein made his debut in a 4-0 loss to Bayern Munich on September 26, 2025, before keeping a clean sheet in a 1-0 win over St Pauli on October 4, 2025. He made only two appearances during the campaign and had not played a minute for Werder since that St Pauli match, having missed the last couple of months with a thumb injury.
For Arsenal, the sale is a small but timely piece of business as summer planning gathers pace. The club could reportedly axe as many as eight players before next season, with Ben White and Gabriel Jesus among those who could move on. Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard could also depart to make room for a new left-winger, while Ethan Nwaneri’s future remains unsettled after an unsuccessful loan spell at Marseille. Arsenal are also assessing the futures of Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz, and Atletico Madrid have taken an interest in Cristhian Mosquera.
Hein leaves after an eight-year spell in north London that never quite translated into a sustained senior role, but his exit still matters because it gives Arsenal an early fee and one less decision to manage as the market opens. More departures are likely to define the rest of Arsenal summer transfer plans 2026.
