West Ham United manager David Moyes has hinted at the club returning to the South American market in the future when buying new players.
The Hammers have so far made just one signing this month in the transfer window, bringing in young Brazilian centre-back Luizao to the club on a free transfer from Sao Paulo, having made his first-team breakthrough for them in the 2022 season.
That move was announced just four months after West Ham spent an initial £35.6million (rising to £52.7m in potential future add-ons) to sign Brazil international Lucas Paqueta from Olympique Lyonnais, whose career started off via club football with Flamengo in his native country.
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Those moves could just be the start of a series of transfers made by West Ham in South America with West Ham continuing to grow their scouting network.
Speaking about recruitment in general, Moyes admits that current rules on player trading make it almost easier to sign players from South America than it does Europe, partly due to rules placed on British clubs due to Brexit. After moves for Paqueta and Luizao, more could follow suit in the coming transfer windows.
"You're always growing your recruitment team,” said Moyes. “I think depending on the workload and what we see, we have people looking in this country and abroad.
“To bring in players from South America you need to have top scouts out there as well. It's nearly easier to bring them than some of the European players. The rules have changed and it is evolving.
“The club have been very good because when we came in there was no recruitment department at all. In the last two years, we've grown and tried to make it better.
“We have scouts out at tournaments, or competitions and different things throughout the world, not just Europe.”
Paqueta has played 17 times for West Ham since his move from Lyon, scoring once and providing three assists. Meanwhile, Luizao made his under-21s debut as a substitute during a win away at Everton ten days ago.
Speaking of South Americans, Moyes has also recently revealed that he had the chance to sign Manchester City striker Julian Alvarez from River Plate prior to this move but opted not to.
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