**Fabio Vieira** has agreed to leave **[Arsenal](/en/data/arsenal/)** to sign for **Bundesliga** side **Hamburg**.
The transfer has been thrashed out for a fee of £8.6 million, the same amount as **Barcelona** have paid for **Gabriel Jesus**, and both of the attackers were confirmed to have left the club on deadline day.
Much like Jesus, this exit was long coming for Vieira, who struggled to meet the standards of the side.
·**A player permanently on the fringes**
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Vieira arrived in North London with promise after a successful year for club and country.
Brimming with confidence after helping **Portugal** reach the Under-21 European Championships final in March 2021 as the tournament’s Best Player, he grew in stature as part of the squad for **Porto**.
Vieira registered 14 assists and 6 goals across 27 **Primeira Liga** appearances in the 2021/22 season, and his body of work attracted **Arsenal** to acquire his services for a fee of £35 million in June 2022.
Newly appointed club captain **Martin Odegaard** was always going to take seniority in the role of the team’s attacking midfielder, but Vieira was willing to fight for minutes in an upwardly mobile side.
Indeed, he marked his full **Premier League** debut with a sweet strike against **Brentford** in a 3-0 triumph, coming ten days after his first start for the _Gunners_ in the **Europa League** against **Zurich**.
That was as good as it got. As **Arsenal** put together their first serious title contending season in over a decade, Odegaard excelled, leading by example with a 15 **Premier League** goal year. Meanwhile, Vieira only earned 468 league minutes, often looking far inferior to his Norwegian counterpart.
The departure of **Granit Xhaka** to **Bayer Leverkusen** then left a hole to be filled on the left of the midfield unit. **Mikel Arteta** experimented with summer signing **Kai Havertz** in the position, but the start of the 2023/24 season certainly marked the most sustained spell in the starting eleven for Vieira.
However, fans felt the side was not the same fluid outfit from the previous campaign, and whatever good Vieira had done in his playing time was spoiled when he received a red card against **Burnley**.
In the last six months of the **Premier League** campaign, he only made three substitute appearances.
The logical next step was a loan move for the attacker, and he returned to **Porto**. He did not impress enough to earn a permanent return to Portugal, so he then moved to **Hamburg** for the 2025/26 season.
Two red cards in his first five fixtures for the promoted club could have condemned him to the bad books for good. But _Die Rothosen_ remained in the top tier comfortably, finishing nine points clear of the relegation playoff, and Vieira played his part with seven goals and five assists in 29 appearances.
Now 26, Vieira can concentrate on making the most of his prime years at a more suitable level.