It’s no secret that Lucas Moura and José Mourinho share a good friendship, as they’ve said in many interviews in the past few months.
The Special Onetried to sign the Brazilian for years, with the first attempt happening in the manager’s time at Real Madrid, and he finally got to work him at Spurs.
Lucas Moura’s agent Junior Pedroso has been interviewed by journalist Jorge Nicola this week, spending nearly two hours speaking of his clients.
The representative has told the entire story about how Mourinho wanted to sign Lucas, and when asked if the manager is a difficult person to deal with, he only praised the Portuguese boss.
“By no means. On the contrary. Nowadays he goes to Lucas’ house. They live nearby, in Barnet. So he passes by Lucas’ house sometimes out of nowhere,” Junior Pedroso told Jorge Nicola.
“He takes a wine. Lucas doesn’t drink, but he takes a wine, he calls Lucas to say he had a haircut. It’s funny.”
Regarding Lucas Moura’s transfer from Paris Saint Germain in 2018, Junior Pedroso says it was a quite a difficult time for the player, and Mourinho has been helping him find his confidence once again.
“When he left PSG for Tottenham it was very traumatic. With the arrival of Unai at the time, with the arrival of Neymar, Mbappe, Lucas lost a lot of space. And the club practically blamed him for that Champions League disqualification against Barcelona. PSG were very tough on Lucas at the time. He stayed there for six months and then there was opportunity for Pochettino, who saw a great opportunity in Lucas. It was an expensive operation for Tottenham, Lucas isn’t a cheap player. And he bet, and I think they loved the bet.
“And obviously Mourinho’s arrival will rekindle Lucas’s fire of very important motivation for his career. Because he saw a coach who had an affection he needed. That would give him an opportunity, even if he wasn’t doing well in one match, to insist on another match with him. So Lucas corresponds very well to this coach.”
Regarding Lucas’ future, the agent has claimed that his wish is to stay at Tottenham Hotspur, although they keep an eye on the transfer market. He’s also said the player knows where to retire.
“We discuss it a lot. Lucas is a very strong personality, a very intelligent guy, and when he finishes his career he will come to work with us for sure. We have discussed a lot about that. Today he’s in the main league in the world, in the most competitive league, Tottenham are a team that dispute titles in European leagues. So, he desires to continue, obviously to grow at Tottenham and seek a more competitive team. I think Mourinho will work on that.”
“But there’s always one or other window of opportunity always that sometimes I watch. In Spain itself. I will not quote names now, so I don’t create controversy. In Germany… China have made millionaire proposals twice before limiting wages. One was financially really tempting and Lucas remained steadfast in his attitude of following his career project.
“So today the discussion is: we will fulfil our contract obviously because he always wants to grow at Tottenham and in the Premier League. But we’re always attentive to the market because football is very dynamic, you can’t settle on a contract and expect that you’ll fulfil it all.
“So, we’re always attentive to the moves in the market, but in a second moment, obviously it won’t be now, it won’t be in the next three years, Lucas will come back and make his retirement here at São Paulo. He’s 27 years old, turning 28 this year, so I imagine that at 32 to 33 years old. Lucas will play until the age of 36, 37 years old because of the way he takes care of himself, he sleeps well, he eats well, he trains at home. He’s the first to arrive at the club, the last to leave. I imagine he comes at 33 to play for other three or four years in Brazil. All certain that it’s São Paulo.”
