Arsenal have completed the signing of Uruguayan midfielder, Lucas Torreira from Sampdoria.
The 22-year-old becomes Unai Emery’s fourth signing of a busy transfer window that has seen us add quality to the defence and midfield.
Torreira impressed for Uruguay at the World Cup and has signed for a fee believed to be around £26m. He featured in all five matches as the 2-time world champions reached the quarter-finals, with Torreira earning plaudits for his combative displays, particularly in the Round of 16 victory over Portugal.
The defensive midfielder has grown into one of the most impressive enforcers in the Serie A and made 198 tackles over the course of two seasons with Sampdoria; but he also has great positional awareness that allows him to read and intercept opposition crosses when asked to.
Despite being 22, he plays with maturity and poise for a highly-demanding position. He has been compared to Marco Verratti and N’Golo Kante; while he has aspects of the former’s passing ability, he also has the latter’s ball-winning qualities.
Speaking after Lucas Torreira was announced as an Arsenal player, manager, Unai Emery said: “In Lucas Torreira, we have signed a young player who is a very bright talent in the game. A midfielder with great quality, I have enjoyed watching his performances for Sampdoria in the past two seasons, and we all saw him do very well for Uruguay in the World Cup.
“He is a young player already with good experience, but who wants to keep on growing. We welcome Lucas to Arsenal and look forward to him joining us soon for pre-season.” He added.
Torreira stands at only 5ft 5in, but size doesn’t define how effective a midfielder can be defensively: Atletico Madrid are one of the best organized teams in the world and none of the midfielders who started their 2016 Champions League Final against Real Madrid were over 6ft.
Torreira will wear the number 11 jersey, which was previously worn by Mesut Ozil, who has taken over the number 10. Welcome to Arsenal, Lucas!