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Arsene Wenger has stepped up his interest in Mario Balotelli.

Mirror Sport revealed two weeks ago that Arsenal have been offered Italy’s bad boy striker.

The Gunners' boss Wenger is now ready to pay around £25million for the AC Milan striker, who scored Italy’s winner to beat England in their World Cup opener on Saturday night.

AC Milan are ready to offload Balotelli to ease their financial problems by getting him off the wage bill and to rake in a big transfer fee.

Monaco are also interested in the 23-year-old, but Wenger is a long term admirer of the ex-Manchester City striker.

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The Frenchman has been interested in signing him in the past so his reputation for creating controversy will not necessarily put him off.

Wenger is at the World Cup as a pundit for French TV and Balotelli’s representatives have also come to Brazil.

Balotelli is understood to want to come back to the Premier League, and Arsenal have made boosting their strike-force with a top-class signing one of their priorities for this summer.

The Italian fits the bill, if they can get him, although Arsenal also maintain an interest in QPR’s French forward Loic Remy - who has a £10m buy-out clause.