Brighton and Hove Albion have signed Portuguese under-21 international Joao Carlos Teixeira on a season-long loan from Liverpool.
The 21-year-old attacking midfielder joined Albion yesterday (Friday 15 August) and should be available to face Birmingham City this afternoon.
Seagulls manager Sami Hyypia said: “We are delighted to have brought Joao in for the season and we are very grateful to Liverpool.
“It’s something we have been working on for a short time and I am pleased to be able to welcome Joao to the club.
“The reports I have seen on him are very positive and my former colleagues at Liverpool have told me he is a very bright young prospect who is held in high regard at the club at all levels.
“Joao is an attacking player who likes to be on the ball and do his best work in the final third of the pitch.
“I hope he will bring that extra edge to the team and our play and give us an extra dimension.
“We still plan to further strengthen the squad ahead of the transfer deadline and there is still some work to do.
“We have targets, we know the areas we need to strengthen and we are making progress.”
Teixeira joined Liverpool from Sporting Lisbon in 2012, having graduated through the club’s youth system. He had a brief spell on loan at Brentford last season, before making his Liverpool debut last season in a 3-2 win at Fulham in February.
He has played for Portugal at every level from under-16 to under-21. He made a goalscoring debut for the under-21s against Croatia in June last year.
Albion chief executive Paul Barber said that the club would keep working on strengthening the squad before the transfer window closes on Monday 1 September.
He said: “Joao is the fifth target we have secured this summer and work continues on our remaining prospects as we move into the final couple of weeks of the transfer window.
“Patience is key as we continue to focus on our main targets.
“Inevitably, we accept that this means we will be linked with players we are not interested in but it makes no sense for us to discuss publicly the players we want to join the club.
“We know our fans are keen to hear news as soon as possible. As ever, we will announce any further news as soon as we are able.”
One transfer target, Wolves and Ireland defender Stephen Ward, won’t be making his loan spell at Albion permanent. Yesterday he joined Burnley.
I’m a Liverpool fan, just wanted to say, you’ve just got potentially one of the best young players in Europe.
He was held back by a serious injury, but hopefully thats behind him now, once up to speed, you’ll find him creative and intelligent, a player who we hoped would be challenging in our first team this year, so from afar we will be watching 🙂
I’m a Liverpool fan, just wanted to say, you’ve just got potentially one of the best young players in Europe.
He was held back by a serious injury, but hopefully thats behind him now, once up to speed, you’ll find him creative and intelligent, a player who we hoped would be challenging in our first team this year, so from afar we will be watching 🙂