Arsenal announce signing of Uruguay midfielder Lucas Torreira from Serie A side Sampdoria

Arsenal have completed the signing of Uruguay midfielder Lucas Torreira from Italian Serie A side Sampdoria, the Premier League club announced on Tuesday. [caption id=“attachment_4709821” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Lucas Torreira. AP[/caption] “The wait is over… it’s #TimeForTorreira. Welcome to Arsenal,” the North London club tweeted. “In Lucas Torreira, we have signed a young player who is a very bright talent in the game,” coach Unai Emery told the club’s website, adding, “he’s a midfielder with great quality, I have enjoyed watching his performances for Sampdoria in the past two seasons, and we all saw him do very well for Uruguay in the World Cup.” The 22-year-old played all five of Uruguay’s World Cup matches in Russia, as they crashed out in the quarter-finals following a 2-0 defeat by France. Torreira joined Sampdoria in 2015 and made 71 appearances for the Italian club.

“He is a young player already with good experience, but who wants to keep on growing. We welcome Lucas to Arsenal and look forward to him joining us soon for pre-season,” Emery added. Arsenal did not provide financial details of the deal but it was reported last month that the fee agreed would be around 30 million euros ($35.13 million). Torreira will wear the number 11 shirt vacated by midfielder Mesut Ozil. Ozil recently switched to number 10.