{"id":694149,"date":"2026-01-13T23:24:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T23:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/694149\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T23:24:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T23:24:36","slug":"west-ham-misfit-could-follow-lucas-paqueta-to-brazil-as-talks-begin-over-6m-swoop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/694149\/","title":{"rendered":"West Ham misfit could follow Lucas Paqueta to Brazil as talks begin over \u00a36m swoop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lucas Paqueta is not the only West Ham United player who could be swapping the Premier League for the Brazilian Serie A this month.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whether an unnecessary distraction or a timely parting of the ways for two troubled partners, the future of Lucas Paqueta<\/a> is destined to become the main topic of discussion at the London Stadium during the remainder of the January transfer window.<\/p>\n

The good news is that Paqueta won\u2019t be joining Mohammed Kudus at Tottenham<\/a>. Or, at least, that is the view from his Brazilian homeland.<\/p>\n

How will you LOOK BACK on Lucas Paqueta\u2019s West Ham career? \ud83c\udde7\ud83c\uddf7 <\/p>\n

Rate his Hammers career out of 10<\/p>\n

\"Lucas <\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n

The Rio-born ace has his heart set on a return to Flamengo, where he started his career. Out of sight and out of mind is infinitely better than seeing Paqueta and Kudus link up a few miles to the north, right West Ham United<\/a> fans?<\/p>\n

Of all the ways his Hammers career could come to an end, leaving English football behind while boosting Nuno Espirito Santo\u2019s coffers to the tune of around \u00a335 million is as preferable as it gets. <\/p>\n

According to The Guardian<\/a>, Flamengo have seen a \u00a330 million bid rejected. The Copa Libertadores champions are prepared to go up to \u00a335 million, though; a fee that would see the prodigal playmaker become their record signing by some distance.<\/p>\n

Palmeiras, in contrast, would not have to dip quite so deep into their financial reserves to bring Igor Julio<\/a> back home.<\/p>\n

Igor Julio could join West Ham United teammate Lucas Paqueta in Brazil<\/p>\n

Of all the potential and confirmed departures from the London Stadium this month \u2013 from Niclas Fullkrug to Luis Guilherme, Lucas Paqueta to Callum Wilson \u2013 that of Igor Julio has understandably attracted the least attention.<\/p>\n

The centre-back has started only one Premier League match since joining on loan from Brighton and Hove Albion.<\/p>\n

Igor has been left out by Nuno<\/a> for four of the last five matches too. He was nowhere to be seen during the 2-1 FA Cup third round victory over QPR. <\/p>\n

\"FBL-ENG-PR-CRYSTALPhoto by GLYN KIRK\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

For all the criticism and the confusion surrounding Nuno\u2019s team selections of late, his sidelining of Igor is one of the more reasonable. After all, with Ezra Mayers waiting in the wings, why give minutes to a loanee when you have a future first-team regular ready to make his breakthrough?<\/p>\n

Mayers made his full West Ham debut<\/a> on Sunday. The 18-year-old\u2019s emergence as a first-team option at both centre-half and left-back appears to have been the final nail in Igor\u2019s coffin as far as his hopes of a permanent move to the London Stadium are concerned.<\/p>\n

He appears to have no place in Brighton\u2019s long-term plans either. The 2022 and 2023 Brazilian league champions have made contact with Igor\u2019s representatives, according to Palestra<\/a>. Brighton are allegedly willing to consider offers in the region of \u00a36 million.<\/p>\n

Palmeiras open Igor talks as Ezra Mayers impresses Nuno Espirito Santo<\/p>\n

While relatively small change compared to some of the other potential centre-half signings at West Ham \u2013 Toulouse\u2019s ex-Leeds starlet is valued at \u00a320 million-plus<\/a>, for instance \u2013 that \u00a36 million fee is one Nuno will not be rushing to pay. Especially now that Igor finds himself stuck behind a teenager who has looked the part in his brief senior career thus far.<\/p>\n

Mayers hopes to keep his place against Tottenham<\/a> in Saturday\u2019s local derby.<\/p>\n

\u201cWalking out of the tunnel for the first time, through all the bubbles and the fans singing, it\u2019s something very special,\u201d said Mayers, whose adaptability makes him an option at left-back, at centre-half, in a back four and a back three.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t get that coming on as a sub. But yeah, happy with my performance in my first game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course [I want to play vs Tottenham]! It\u2019s always a tasty one against Spurs. You always want to win that one, so yeah, if I\u2019m involved, I\u2019ll be excited and ready to give my all.\u201d<\/p>\n

How much confidence does the win over QPR give you heading into Spurs? \ud83d\udc40 <\/p>\n

Oh, how sweet it would be to start to turn things around against them \ud83d\ude0d<\/p>\n

\"TatyPhoto by Alex Pantling\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n

Lucas Paqueta prefers Flamengo to Tottenham Hotspur<\/p>\n

As for Lucas Paqueta, Brazilian reporter Rodrigo Mattos tells\u00a0UOL Esporte<\/a> that the 27-year-old is opting against a move to Saturday\u2019s opponents. Tottenham looked into another West Ham swoop<\/a>, but Paqueta will not be following in Kudus\u2019 footsteps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think his desire is clear. He wants to join Flamengo,\u201d Mattos says. \u201cNot just because he doesn\u2019t want to go to Tottenham, which is a big English club, but also because he sees the atmosphere surrounding him in England, ever since the betting investigations began.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe suffered a lot of reputational damage within England specifically. So I think that factor also plays into his desire to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaqueta doesn\u2019t need to come to Flamengo to make the World Cup. He\u2019s coming to Flamengo \u2013 if he comes \u2013 because he wants to play for Flamengo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Join Our Newsletter <\/p>\n

Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lucas Paqueta is not the only West Ham United player who could be swapping the Premier League for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4100],"tags":[106820,36634,94,135047,59009,101,79,16,15],"class_list":["post-694149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-brighton-and-hove-albion-fc","tag-flamengo","tag-football","tag-igor-julio","tag-lucas-paqueta","tag-premier-league","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115890374439830127","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}