Tottenham are set to announce the transfer of one of their attackers after he landed in Brazil to finalise his move away from the Premier League club
Alejo Veliz's transfer to join City Football Group club Bahia from Tottenham is nearing after the striker flew to Brazil to complete the formalities of the deal.
Spurs signed the 22-year-old back in the summer of 2023 but the Argentine would only go on to play eight senior matches for the north London club under then head coach Ange Postecoglou, scoring once. Veliz was sent out on a string of loans with two spells in La Liga with Sevilla and Espanyol before returning to South America to the club where Tottenham signed him from - Rosario Central.
The attacker scored six goals across 24 appearances for the Argentine side this season and Spurs reportedly attempted to get the deal done with Bahia in the January window but were unable to bring a premature conclusion to Veliz's loan at his boyhood club.
Soon after the winter window closed, football.london reported that the transfer had still been agreed with the Brazilian side, part of the City Football Group, to be completed at the end of the season in Argentina. A £7.8million (9million euros) deal was agreed with £871k in add-ons (1million euros) plus a 20% sell-on clause.
Veliz was caught at the airport by the media when he flew into the Brazilian city last week and spoke about his impending move to the cameras.
"I am very happy with this step in my career, arriving at this club. I am very emotional about leaving Rosario Central because that is my home and my family," he is quoted as saying by Globo.
"We made this decision because I want to grow my career somewhere else. It was the best decision we made as a family. I watched the fans a lot. I also watched the recent matches. It is incredible. I hope I can give back a little of what they do."
Globo also reported that before accepting Bahia's offer, Veliz spoke with Mateo Sanabria, a Bahia striker he played with in the youth ranks of the Argentina national team.
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The player is said to have been on the radar of Bahia and the City Football Group since 2022, before he made the move to Tottenham and they see the forward as a player who can still improve and grow in value.
Officially Veliz's loan contract with Rosario comes to its conclusion at the end of June so it may be that any transfer announcement must wait until then. However, since the Argentinian team will not play again before that date and Veliz has already said goodbye to the team that developed him there remains a chance the transfer could be announced sooner.
For instance, Andy Robertson's free transfer to Tottenham was announced last week despite the Scot having a contract with Liverpool that runs until the end of this month.