{"id":614618,"date":"2022-07-04T09:59:24","date_gmt":"2022-07-04T13:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=614618"},"modified":"2022-07-13T04:47:12","modified_gmt":"2022-07-13T08:47:12","slug":"fulham-joao-palhinha-from-sporting-lisbon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/04\/fulham-joao-palhinha-from-sporting-lisbon\/","title":{"rendered":"Fulham Confirm Signing of Sporting Lisbon Midfielder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fulham have confirmed the signing of Sporting Lisbon midfielder Joao Palhinha on a five-year deal.\u00a0The West Londoners fended off <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teamtalk.com\/fulham\/dash-wolves-hopes-confirming-impressive-joao-palhinha-transfer-big-fee-contract-length-revealed\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">interest from Wolves<\/a> and completed the deal for the 26-year-old.\u00a0There was a minor delay due to a legal issue with his representatives, but it wasn&#8217;t enough to derail his move to Craven Cottage.<\/p>\n<h2>Fulham Complete Signing of Joao Palhinha<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The new man on the block. \ud83e\udd1d<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/TheJo%C3%A3oFactor?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#TheJo\u00e3oFactor<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#FFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Za7INdciMX\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Za7INdciMX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FulhamFC\/status\/1543884354715545600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 4, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>What Was Said<\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fulhamfc.com\/news\/2022\/july\/04\/fulham-sign-palhinha\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">FFCtv<\/a>, Palhinha said: \u201cI\u2019m very glad to be here. It\u2019s a big opportunity for me, for my career, to play in what is, in my opinion, the best league in the world. I\u2019ve signed with a great club. The club wanted me, and I chose the Club, so I promise the fans that I will do my best, and I hope we can win so many things this season.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Fulham co-owner Tony Khan added: \u201cJo\u00e3o Palhinha has excelled in Portugal playing both club and international football. He\u2019s been one of our top targets in this window. While other prominent clubs were aiming to secure his signature, we\u2019re thrilled that Jo\u00e3o chose to come here and that he wants to play for Fulham under our great coach Marco Silva, and we believe that Jo\u00e3o will be a valuable addition to strengthen the squad to compete this season in the Premier League.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Despite the official club statement claiming the Portuguese joined for an undisclosed fee, sources from\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/news\/fulham-sign-joao-palhinha-transfer-news\/gh3fMRRlamCl\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Athletic<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> believe the West Londoners parted ways with around \u00a320 million to bring the 26-year-old to Craven Cottage.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Days of Humble Beginnings<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Palhinha joined Sporting\u2019s academy as an exciting young talent known for imposing himself in games. He got his first taste of senior football when he moved to Moreirense on loan in 2015\/16. There, he made 29 appearances as he helped preserve their top-flight status.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Next up on his loan tour was Belenenses, where he spent the first half of the 2016\/17 season. He made 13 appearances for The Blues from Restelo before returning to Sporting, where he was integrated into the side that finished third. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">A final loan switch saw him spend two seasons with Braga, racking up 61 appearances and five goals. He helped them win the Ta\u00e7a da Liga in his second season. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Portuguese then returned to his parent club a new man with a wealth of experience under his belt. He was instrumental in helping them win the title for the first time since 2002 in his first season back. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">He made 39 appearances last season in all competitions, including six in the Champions League. The Sporting academy product has featured 14 times for the Portuguese International team so far.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Fulham Looking to Build on Promotion<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Fulham enjoyed an astonishing Championship-winning campaign under former <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/02\/jesse-lingard-everton-and-tottenham\/\" target=\"_self\">Everton<\/a> manager Marco Silva. They won 27 of 46 games, scoring 106 goals and accumulating 90 points as they ran riot to earn promotion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> However, they will be wary of their struggle in maintaining their status in the top flight. The Cottagers endured a five-year spell away from the Premier League between 2013 and 2018. They have since been somewhat of a yo-yo club between the first and second tiers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Silva <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/3397038\/2022\/07\/02\/marco-silva-fulham-transfers-unhappy\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reportedly wants<\/a> as many as ten new faces as he prepares for life back in the Premier League. He identified the midfield as a priority to strengthen this summer after the club decided against extending the contract of Jean Michael Seri at the end of last season. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The West London club are also in talks with Arsenal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/news\/11095\/12632659\/bernd-leno-fulham-open-negotiations-to-sign-arsenal-goalkeeper-this-summer\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">goalkeeper Bernd Leno<\/a> and has made an offer for Manchester United&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Marcelo_Hazan\/status\/1541115448439226370?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1541115448439226370%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flastwordonsports.com%2Ffootball%2F2022%2F06%2F26%2Ffulham-agreement-manchester-united-midfielder%2F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andreas Pereira<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fulham have confirmed the signing of Sporting Lisbon midfielder Joao Palhinha on a five-year deal.\u00a0The West Londoners fended off interest from Wolves and completed the deal for the 26-year-old.\u00a0There was a minor delay due to a legal issue with his representatives, but it wasn&#8217;t enough to derail his move to Craven Cottage. Fulham Complete Signing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4235,"featured_media":614631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2511,30,3,28],"tags":[9298,9297],"class_list":["post-614618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fulham","category-news","category-premier-league","category-transfers","tag-fulham-transfers","tag-joao-palhinha"],"modified_by":"Joseph Howes, Site Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4235"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}