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West Ham’s season seems set to go from bad to worse if new reports in England are to be believed. According to the Guardian, the London club are now having to contend with a transfer request by star player Lucas Paquetá. The newspaper claims that the Brazilian attacker asked to be left out of the club’s FA Cup tie with QPR and is pushing for a departure from the club this month. The 28-year-old talent has been heavily linked with a move to Brazilian club Flamengo just six months after he was cleared of sport-fixing charges by the English FA.

Paquetá returned to first team duties with West Ham at the start of the season and has so far bagged five goals and one assists in 19 games for the Hammers across all competitions. Although that’s far from the attacker’s best return in a West Ham shirt, the club nonetheless consider Paquetá to be an invaluable member of Nuno Espírito Santo’s team. And a departure in January would pour further misery on a club that is struggling to put any space between themselves and the Premier League relegation spots.

West Ham signed Paquetá from Lyon in 2022 for €42.95 million, which was the second highest fee the club had paid for a player at the time. The Brazilian enjoyed plenty of success in his first two years at the club, as his market value rose from €45m to a career high of €65m between 2003 and 2004. However, due to the aforementioned FA charges and a dip in form, Paquetá’s market value has now dropped to €35m. According to the Guardian, Flamengo would be prepared to meet that market value with a fee in the region of €40m to sign the forward this month.

Should Paquetá get his wish and return to Brazilian football for such a fee, it would make the 28-year-old winger the most expensive signing in Brazilian football history. The current holder of the most expensive transfer fee paid by a Brazilian club is Gerson, who moved from Zenit St Petersburg to Cruzeiro this month for €27m, which overtook Vitor Roque’s €25.5m move from Barcelona to Palmeiras in February 2025. Paquetá would be returning to his boyhood club, where he scored 18 goals and eight assists in 95 games for Flamengo, before moving to AC Milan for €23m in 2020.