Everton have been linked with a potential transfer move for Sao Paulo's Lucas Ferreira
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Lucas Ferreira reacts during the Copa Libertadores match between Brazil's Sao Paulo and Peru's Alianza Lima at the Morumbi Stadium on April 10, 2025
Lucas Ferreira reacts during the Copa Libertadores match between Brazil's Sao Paulo and Peru's Alianza Lima at the Morumbi Stadium on April 10, 2025
(Image: MIGUEL SCHINCARIOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Everton-linked Lucas Ferreira is a youthful prospect that has flown under the radar of many European football fans so far. But is that exactly the kind of South American talent that the Blues should be targeting?
Speculation has been rife that Everton fan favourite Richarlison could return to Merseyside this summer. But as much as the Brazilian was the darling of the Gwladys Street during a four-year stint at Goodison Park between 2018-22, and that respect and affection remains mutual, having already splashed out £35million on him some seven years ago when he had just one season of Premier League experience, do the Blues really want to be going back to a 28-year-old who has suffered with injury problems at Tottenham Hotspur?
After the often-profligate spending of the Farhad Moshiri era that resulted in a brace of points deductions for PSR rule breaches, plenty believe that a more prudent transfer policy, with The Friedkin Group now owning the club and David Moyes back in charge would be a much better road to go down and that would be a case of identifying the next Richarlison before such a fledgling talent even moves to Europe.
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It’s an avenue that Brighton & Hove Albion, who will provide the first competitive opponents at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in Everton’s inaugural Premier League fixture at their 52,888-capacity future home on August 23 have enjoyed significant success in going down.
The Seagulls have regularly plundered the South American market in recent years and unearthed several gems, most notably Ecuador midfielder Moises Caicedo – a player who was also understood to have been targeted by Everton – who was snapped up from his first club Independiente del Valle in his homeland for an undisclosed fee (believed to be just £4.5million) on February 1, 2021, before being sold to Chelsea for a British record £115million less than two-and-a-half years later.
Citing Sao Paulo-based journalist Jorge Nicola via Antenados no Futebol, The Toffee Blues reports that Everton and Wolverhampton Wanderers are interested in Sao Paulo winger, Lucas Ferreira. So just what sort of a player is he?
Born on April 28, 2006, the day before an 88th-minute strike from James McFadden gave Moyes’ Everton a 1-0 win at UEFA Cup finalists Middlesbrough, Ferreira hails from Campos dos Goytacazes, in the northern region of Rio de Janeiro state.
Ferreira started with Americano FC in his home city at the age of just six before moving to Flamengo in 2017, spending three seasons at the Rio giants ahead of arriving at Sao Paulo, via Boavista SC. It was here that he first started to catch the eye of European clubs, with reported scouting by German side Bayer Leverkusen, while he broke into the Brazil Under-17s team and in March 2024 Ferreira was named Toyota MVP (most valuable player) in the Supergroup Under-19s category of the Dallas Cup after netting the opening goal in a 3-2 win over hosts FC Dallas in the final.
In December last year, he then helped Sao Paulo win Sub-20 edition of Copa do Brasil by the same scoreline against local rivals Palmeiras, making his professional debut the following month coming on as a 68th minute substitute for Ryan Francisco in a goalless draw at Botafogo on January 20 in the Campeonato Paulista (Sao Paulo State Championship). So far, Ferreira has made a dozen appearances in Brazil’s Serie A (totalling 754 minutes) and he netted his first senior goal to open the scoring in a 2-0 win at Paraguayans Club Libertad of Asuncion in a Copa Libertadores group match on April 24.
Ferreira’s first professional contract, signed in September last year, is reported to have had a release clause of R$440million (approximately £59.27m) but Transfermarkt record him as penning a new long-term deal only last month on May 13, tying him down until December 31, 2029. In terms of his style, observers have compared the 19-year-old to compatriot Douglas Costa, now 34, who had spells in Europe at Bayern Munich and Juventus, plus Chelsea’s England international Noni Madueke.
On YouTube highlights reel, is titled ‘Lucas Ferreira was born to dribble’ while another calls him a Brazilian baller. The former statement seems particularly pertinent as, even in his fledgling career, the two-footed winger, who predominantly operates on the right but has been shown to cut inside and shoot on his left in a manner akin to Liverpool star Mohamed Salah, is averaging 5.8 dribbles per 90 minutes, according to statistics compiled by Comparisonator.
Lucas Ferreira's dribbles per 90 minutes for Sao Paulo compared to Premier League players in his position
Lucas Ferreira's dribbles per 90 minutes for Sao Paulo compared to Premier League players in his position
If those numbers were correlated against players in his position operating in the English top flight then Ferreira would be ranked sixth in the Premier League in a category topped by Dejan Kulusevski of Tottenham Hotspur (7.38) and ahead of the likes of West Ham United’s Jarrod Bowen (5.65) and Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka (5.48), plus the aforementioned Salah (5.42) and Madueke (5.32).
*Comparisonator is a football data comparison tool from 271 professional leagues around the world which compares players and clubs by utilising over 100 different parameters. Click here for more details.