In the midst of a relegation battle, West Ham are hoping to push themselves out of the bottom three and retain the club’s long-standing Premier League status.
The Hammers have been a regular in the English top flight since 2012 and have been a Premier League member for 30 of the league’s 33 years of existence.
As such, it seems odd that the club would agree to sell its most internationally recognised and accomplished player, while they simultaneously make a play for top-flight safety over the second half of the 2025/26 campaign.
The Sporting News explains why West Ham would give in to outward forces and agree to sell midfielder Lucas Paqueta to Brazilian side Flamengo.
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Is Lucas Paqueta leaving West Ham?
According to multiple reports, including ESPN and the BBC, Paqueta is set to depart West Ham and join Flamengo in a £35.78 million ($48.9m) transfer deal.
The 28-year-old will return to his boyhood club where he came through the youth system and played for three seasons at the senior level before departing for AC Milan to begin his European career.
While Paqueta has reportedly been in agreement with Flamengo on personal terms for quite some time, it took significant negotiation between the clubs themselves to bring the transfer to fruition. Even still, a payment structure has reportedly yet to be hashed out and remains one of the last hurdles to completing the deal.
“What I can say is that we are close,” said Flamengo president Luiz Eduardo Baptista while attending an event for the 2027 Women’s World Cup, as quoted by ESPN. “We reached an agreement on several aspects, which I consider the most important. Today, the difference is the payment method we will use.”
It was reportedly West Ham’s preference that Paqueta be loaned back to the Premier League side for the remainder of the season to help with their relegation battle, but the latest talks have scrapped that idea.
Tottenham reportedly made a push to sign the Brazilian, but he wishes to leave England entirely to make an emotional return to the place his career began.
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Why does Lucas Paqueta want to leave West Ham?
Reports have suggested over the past month that Paqueta has been pushing for this move, and thus has been absent from the team throughout much of January. The Brazilian midfielder did not appear in the club’s January 3 match against Wolves, and while he returned to log 63 minutes against Nottingham Forest three days later, he was out of the squad for subsequent matches against Tottenham and Sunderland, which both resulted in victories for West Ham.
There are multiple factors in play to push all parties towards a transfer.
First, from a logistical standpoint, there are just 18 months left on Paqueta’s contract at West Ham, which would motivate the Hammers to secure a financial windfall for his departure instead of letting him see out the remainder of his deal and leave for free.
However, it is risky for a relegation-threatened club to part ways with one of its most talented players ahead of a critical few months of matches that could decide their long-term standing in the English top flight.
The player, however, seems quite intent on leaving London. According to The Guardian, Paqueta has become “disillusioned with life in England” as a result of the spot-fixing allegations against him, of which he was cleared. As a result, his performances have dipped this season and he has become the subject of frustration for fans.
ESPN reported earlier in January that his representatives were dispatched to “encourage” Flamengo to reach a deal for his services as soon as possible.
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Lucas Paqueta betting scandal explained
In August of 2023, Paqueta came under investigation by the Football Association for alleged breaches of its betting rules.
On May 23, 2024, he was charged with four breaches of rule E5.1, and two breaches of rule F3. The former relates to allegations that he was “intentionally seeking to receive a card from the referee.” This came after the FA became aware of suspicious betting patterns relating to Paqueta receiving yellow cards in certain matches.
Paqueta always strongly denied any wrongdoing, and he was cleared after an independent commission decided that an analysis of the betting data was inconclusive and “not illustrative of a spot fix.”
“Spot fixing” is when athletes change games in small ways to influence betting outcomes, rather than alter the course of an entire sporting contest. For example, a baseball pitcher might throw a ball or strike in certain moments, or a cricket bowler deliver a no ball at a pre-determined point in a match. Had Paqueta been found guilty, he could have faced a life ban from the sport.
In their explanation of the findings, the commission concluded there was “nothing in Paqueta’s on-field conduct” that supported the FA’s case against the Brazilian. They cited the FA’s inability to uncover any hint of wrongdoing in a scrub of Paqueta’s personal communications as a main reason for their findings.
As a result of the outcome, Paqueta reportedly considered suing the FA but decided not to pursue such action after intervention from West Ham, with the club said to argue that it would be “bad for football” if a governing body were sued while to do a difficult job of competitive oversight.
Still, the knock-on effect of the scandal has seemingly soured Paqueta on football in Europe and pushed him to pursue a departure for a more familiar pasture.
In November 30, the player apologised for being sent off in a league loss to Liverpool in which he was shown two yellow cards in quick succession for arguing with referee Darren England. Sky Sports analyst Rob Green described Paqueta’s behaviour as “ridiculous”, to which he responded: “It’s ridiculous to have your life and career affected for two years without any psychological support from the federation. Perhaps this ridiculous behaviour is just a reflection of everything I’ve had to endure and, it seems, have to continue enduring!
“I understand that now I have to come across as the villain, it’s hard to live with everything that was caused in my life and in my psyche. I’ll keep trying to ensure they don’t affect me even more. This doesn’t justify my expulsion and that’s why I apologise to the fans and my teammates.”
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