Former Arsenal centre-back Johan Djourou has commented that Arsenal may have signed their very 'own Bernardo Silva' in Fabio Vieira.
Arsenal confirmed the signing of the Porto midfielder on Tuesday as he became the club's second arrival of the summer. As revealed by football.london, the Gunners had been tracking the Portugal under-21 international for some time and have moved to conclude a deal just days after announcing the signing of Brazil wonderkid Marquinhos who joined from Sao Paulo for a fee believed to be in the region of £3m.
Interestingly, Porto announced the deal before Arsenal after confirming on Friday morning that an agreement for the transfer of Vieira on a permanent transfer had been reached. Furthermore, they revealed the overall package of the deal is up to £34m which includes a potential of £5m in bonuses.
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A statement read: "Deal complete for the amount of €40m (£34m), and of these, €5m (£4m) are dependent on achievement of sports objectives."
Arsenal then finally confirmed the transfer on Tuesday. A statement posted on the Gunners' official website read: "Fabio Vieira has joined us from FC Porto on a long-term contract.
"The 22 year-old midfielder, who made 54 appearances during his time with Porto, developed through the Portuguese club’s youth academy, making his first team debut in June 2020 and was part of the Primeira Liga winning squads in both 2019/20 and 2021/22."
Vieira's likely to be compared to other midfielders in the Premier League and that trend has already started. That's because former Gunners star Djourou hopes that the Portuguese star can follow in the footsteps of fellow compatriot, Bernardo Silva.
Replying to Arsenal's confirmation of the signing on Instagram, the ex-Switzerland international said: "By the look of him... he could be our own Bernardo Silva." The reply was followed with a heart-eyes emoji, expressing Djourou's delight at the transfer.
Of course, the hair and beard are similar to Silva's, but as a creative player, his play-style isn't too indifferent either. If Vieira can achieve even half of what the Manchester City star has in England, he and Arsenal fans will be happy.
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