The unlikeliest of heroes, Lucas Moura will forever be remembered as the man who single-handedly sent Tottenham to their first ever Champions League final, putting three past Ajax in a staggering second half comeback.
He was helped by his teammates, of course, but the Brazilian forward was the one who put the ball in the back of the net each time, with some finishes far easier than others.
Perhaps it was destiny that, after his struggles at Paris Saint-Germain, it was he who ensured Arsenal’s fiercest rivals would take part in football’s most prestigious club event.
The same Gunners who are now managed by Unai Emery, the man who cast him to one side in France’s capital and made his life a misery.
L’Equipe recall his transfer from Paris Saint-Germain to Tottenham, which was sorted in a week for a fee of around €27m.
Early in the 2018 January window, the now Tottenham star wasn’t planning on leaving the Ligue 1 champions, yet he knew didn’t have much of a choice, admitting to his good friend Nelson while sitting at a table in a boulangerie in Neuilly-sur-Seine: “(Unai) Emery is going to make me lose everything.”
At this point, the then 25-year-old had played a grand total of 79 minutes of football in the first half of the season, but he was enjoying life in Paris, as his mate Neymar had just signed.
Unfortunately for him, L’Equipe point out it’s the former Barcelona star’s transfer that forced PSG to sell Lucas that window because they needed money to comply with FFP regulations.
A few weeks later, his transfer was done, and in a goodbye dinner with teammates and staff members, the French newspaper explain the Brazilian burst into tears, ‘inconsolable’.
Eighteen months later, Paris Saint-Germain have been knocked out of the Champions League by Manchester United, and Lucas Moura is gearing up for the biggest game of his career, one he set up for himself with three left-footed goals.
He’s right-footed.
