Former Arsenal defender Pablo Mari finalised his permanent exit to AC Monza this week, with the Gunners officially confirming the transfer on Friday.
Writing on Twitter, Mari said farewell to the north London club.
“As my contract with Arsenal comes to an end, I wanted to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you,” Mari said.
“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to represent this great and historic club, for all the memories, and for the support I always received.
“It has been an immense honor to wear the Arsenal jersey and win two titles with this club.
“The Gunners will always have a place in my heart!”
AC Monza had Mari on loan for the 2022/23 campaign, and they had an obligation to buy him for just under £6m.
This obligation was triggered after they avoided relegation and the player hit his appearance target, with Monza securing their status as a Serie A club with a number of games to go.
They ended up finishing 11th and 21 points clear of the relegation zone, and Mari made 31 appearances despite missing part of the season due to a stabbing incident.
The 29-year-old was one of a number of people wounded by a man whilst in a supermarket with his wife and child.
Fortunately, all three escaped the incident, though Mari required surgery and missed the remainder of Monza’s games in 2022.
“The surgery was a relatively simple one,” said Osvaldo Ciara, the director of the general surgery and trauma team at the Niguarda hospital in Milan.
“Luckily there were only two damaged muscles.
“(Marí’s) muscular mass is such that the length of the knife that was used couldn’t pass through the rib cage and hit his lung.”
AC Monza CEO, Adriano Galliani told Sky Italia: “He had his son in a trolley and his wife next to him. He didn’t notice anything. He then felt something painful in his back, which was the criminal’s knife.
“Unfortunately, he also saw the criminal stab someone in the throat. He saw everything that happened and it was deeply disturbing.”
Mari returned to the Monza team after the turn of the year, and he went on to feature in all but one of their games from January to June.
The Spaniard’s transfer seems like good news for all parties, with Mari having a positive impact with his new club and Arsenal profiting.
