After 7 years in Europe
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Flamengo have made Lucas Paquetá the record signing of the Brazilian Serié A. The Brazilian club will pay West Ham United 42 million euros for the 28-year-old midfielder, who will sign a contract with his youth club until December 2030.
The relegation-threatened Hammers will collect almost the amount they paid to Olympique Lyon in 2022. At that time, 42.95 million euros were transferred to France. Since then, Paquetá has appeared in 139 games, scoring 23 goals and providing 15 assists. With four goals in 18 Premier League appearances this season, he is one of the top performers – only Callum Wilson and Jarrod Bowen have been successful more often. With a market value of 35 million euros, Paquetá is the most valuable professional in the Serie A.
It was only at the beginning of January that Cruizero set a new transfer record in Serie A. Gerson came from Zenit St. Petersburg for 27 million euros and replaced Palmeiras’ Vitor Roque as Brazil’s most expensive professional. Higher transfer fees are no longer uncommon in Brazilian football. Since the start of the 2024/25 season, more than 20 million euros have been spent on six players, something that has never happened before. A new TV deal, higher prize money from national and international competitions and increased revenue from player sales to Europe and the USA, which together lead to the league’s growing international visibility, make this development possible. “The Brasileirão clubs are now willing – and able – to invest large sums in transfers,” explains Marcos Watts, Area Manager Brazil at Transfermarkt.
Watts continued: “The fact that Paquetá, as a star player, is leaving a traditional Premier League club to return to his homeland also indicates a change in the level of Brazilian football: Brazilian clubs are increasingly being preferred over lower or middle league European clubs. This was seen, for example, with Vitor Roque, who chose Palmeiras in 2025 instead of several European clubs, or even with players who have received several offers to leave Brazil for the top leagues in recent years For example, Yuri Alberto, Pedro, Fabrício Bruno and others. The context is completely different for Paquetá than for Ronaldinho, Kaká, Ronaldo or Neymar, whose careers were already in decline from a sporting and market perspective when they returned home. This would be another indicator of this change. Paquetá would probably leave the strongest league in the world at the peak of his career to become a legend in Brazil.
