ExWHUemployee has revealed that West Ham United now expect to complete a transfer for Brazilian defender Luizao this winter.
The Sao Paulo centre-back has been heavily linked with the Hammers over the past month or so, with Ex recently stating that club had already ‘held talks’ with the 20-year-old.
However, he had also reported that there could be some issues with the deal due to how a transfer could be formatted. Indeed, West Ham supposedly wanted to avoid having to pay compensation if they were to land him on a free contract, with his deal set to expire soon.
But in the latest development on the situation, it sounds as if the two teams have seemingly come to an agreement that suits all parties and Luizao is expected to become a Hammer.
Indeed, while writing an update on The West Ham Way Patreon page, Ex said: “We can confirm that the club expect to tie the deal up for Brazilian defender Luizao from Sao Paulo when his contract expires at the end of January.
“As covered on the West Ham Way Patreon for months now, talks have been ongoing on how best to structure the deal. West Ham didn’t want to pay compensation for the player who has turned down a number of contract offers from his hometown team, Sao Paulo. We wanted to agree a percentage of future transfer fees instead with a smaller fee, although it isn’t clear, it appears the deal will be decided by compensation and is still waiting [on] the decision of a work permit, too.
“The club will argue he is being signed to feature in the first team already as part of the proposals to get a work permit, but realistically, he isn’t expected to feature consistently until the next season. Although, how soon he does play could depend on how quickly [Kurt] Zouma recovers from his injury (the return date is still unknown) and whether Craig Dawson is allowed to leave the club.
“The club have beaten a whole host of clubs to sign the highly rated Brazilian including Fulham, Juventus and Porto. Rob Newman has spent a lot of time in Brazil identifying new talents and Grant Holt has been in Italy a lot.”
Do West Ham need to sign another centre-back?
Yes
No
TIF Thoughts on Luizao and West Ham…
Seeing as that, according to Ex, some top European clubs such as Juventus and Porto were supposedly in for him, Luizao must be a pretty exciting talent.
To be fair, despite his young age, the centre-back has come through the Sao Paulo academy to make himself a regular in the first team. Indeed, he has played in the Brazilian Serie A 14 times this season (via Transfermarkt).
As Ex mentions, Zouma has had injury troubles of late, so it will be interesting to see if this could propel Luizao into the first team sooner than expected. For now, though, it seems fans may have to be patient as they wait to see him in David Moyes’ side.