Wolves took a jab at Premier League rival Chelsea in a video revealing their acquisition of Brazilian star Pedro Lima.
The 18-year-old, who was also pursued by Chelsea, has committed to a five-year contract with Wolves, with an option for an additional year.
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Wolves invested about £8.5 million to secure the highly-regarded teenager, who played 26 matches for Palmeiras in his debut senior season.
Lima stood out in Brazil’s youth squad during last year’s U17 World Cup, playing in all five of their games.
To announce Lima’s signing, Wolves shared a video on X showing ‘agent’ Matheus Cunha in his office, laughing at a report claiming Chelsea had already sealed the deal, before finalizing Lima’s contract.
Agent Cunha at work ???????????? pic.twitter.com/sG5aXVFdsZ
— Wolves (@Wolves) July 2, 2024
Wolves expressed their delight in welcoming Lima to Molineux.
The club’s sporting director Matt Hobbs said in a statement: ‘I’m really happy we’ve been able to add Pedro to the first-team squad.
‘There was lots of competition for him, but we’ve been working on bringing him to Wolves for a while now, and he’s fully invested in our project.
‘He’s a person with huge ambition, but Gary and the coaches know where he wants to get to and they will be working with him – like they do all our players – to be better and improve.
‘He has a massive desire to be the best player he can be and we’re going to help him meet his goals.
‘Through his attitude, through his work on the pitch, his work in the gym and the way he looks after himself, I expect him to be really competitive and push the players who might be ahead of him at the moment, but in Nelson, I think there’s no better right-back for him to learn from.’
Lima becomes Wolves’ fourth signing of the summer after Tommy Doyle’s loan from Manchester City becoming permanent and the acquisitions of Portuguese winger Rodrigo Gomes and Jorgen Strand Larsen.
Hobbs confirmed Lima decided to join Wolves instead of Chelsea, adding: ‘He made a big decision in deciding to come to us over Chelsea and for a 17-year-old boy to make that decision shows a real sign of strength.
‘But he’s all about football, so he’s just excited to get going and meet all the boys when they’re back later this week. It’s nice to have new signings done before pre-season training starts.
‘It’s one we’ve worked on a while now and he was always a player we wanted to bring in this window. That was always the plan, but we thought it might have been later in the window.
‘But when Chelsea became involved and had agreed with Recife, it was a case of having a day to get it done, and thankfully Jeff was really supportive and we were able to do it.
‘There was lots of competition, and I don’t mean this in an arrogant way at all, but had we been able to do it straight away, then there wouldn’t have been any competition.
‘We are a club that sells our project through pathway, opportunity and connection, while other clubs use different tools like location, size and money. Luckily what appeals to Pedro is who and what we are.’
