Flamengo have completed a club-record signing of Lucas Paquetá from West Ham United, paying a fee reported at £36.5m (€42m) for the Brazil international. The deal makes the 28-year-old the most expensive player in Brazilian football history, with the fee understood to be payable to West Ham in instalments through to 2028. Paquetá has signed a five-year contract at Flamengo, running until December 2030, and returns to the club where he first made his name before moving to Europe.
The move is as much about the player's wishes as it is a football decision. Paquetá told West Ham he wanted to return home to Brazil for personal and family reasons, and said in a farewell message that he wanted to "find joy in football again and regain my peace." That followed a two-year FA investigation into alleged spot-fixing, which ended in July 2025 when he was cleared of any wrongdoing. Paquetá said he turned down interest from Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea to push through the move to Flamengo instead, with a fresh start ahead of this year's World Cup part of the thinking.
For Flamengo, this is a statement signing. The club's financial muscle, built on recent domestic and continental success, allowed them to beat that record fee and bring back a player they sold to Europe years ago, now returning as an established Brazil international in his prime. Getting a proven Premier League attacking midfielder back into Brazilian football, and specifically into a boyhood-club shirt, is as much a squad-strengthening move as a statement of the club's growing pulling power.
West Ham lose a genuine creative outlet in the middle of a relegation fight. Head coach Nuno Espírito Santo made the club's reluctance clear, saying "you cannot replace Lucas because he's unique" and that West Ham had done everything they could to persuade him to stay before accepting the transfer request. The club did other business on deadline day, bringing in defender Axel Disasi, and had shown interest in Atalanta's Nicola Zalewski and Napoli's Antonio Vergara as possible like-for-like options, but neither arrived in time. Nuno was left to admit his side would have to cope without a direct replacement for Paquetá.
Paquetá's form had dipped through the second half of last year as the investigation dragged on, though he still managed four goals and an assist in 18 Premier League appearances this season before leaving. At his best he is a genuine chance creator capable of playing off a front two or from a deeper midfield role, qualities that made him a mainstay for West Ham since his 2022 move from Lyon and a regular in Brazil's squad.
At Flamengo he should slot straight into an attacking midfield role, with the club building their side around bringing him back at the peak of his powers rather than as a squad rotation option. For West Ham, the immediate priority is finding goal threat and creativity from elsewhere in the squad as they try to pull away from the relegation zone without their best playmaker.