London: Out of favour Brazilian Lucas Moura is set to secure a move to Tottenham Hotspur from French giants Paris Saint-Germain, British media reported on Saturday. The 25-year-old winger — capped 34 times — expressed his sadness to French sports daily L’Equipe earlier this week at being frozen out by PSG as his compatriot Neymar’s arrival from Barcelona has seen him fall down the pecking order.
However, The Sun and the Daily Mirror both claim Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino has offered him an escape route — and Champions League football as he has not played for PSG in the competition this season — by making a bid of £25 million ($35.4m, 28.5m euros).
The reports said Lucas, who has made just six substitute appearances for PSG this term, has been shown around Spurs’ training facilities and would prefer a move to the Premier League although both Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla have expressed an interest. Betis have also been linked. Should he move to Spurs he would be reunited with former PSG team-mate Serge Aurier, the Ivory Coast full-back who joined the London club at the beginning of the campaign.
Lucas, who scored 19 times in all competitions for PSG last season, had been a highly-rated target for Manchester United when he opted to join PSG from Sao Paulo in 2013. PSG have to sell to balance the books or else fall foul of UEFA’s financial fair play rules following the world-record acquisition of Neymar and the loan signing of teenage French starlet Kylian Mbappe last August.
Together, those two transfers will cost PSG more than 400 million euros ($490 million) once they complete Mbappe’s permanent deal from Monaco at the end of this season. — AFP
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