Serge Aurier is primed to complete a £23m (€25m) move from Paris Saint‑Germain to Tottenham Hotspur after the Home Office granted him a work permit. The London club have also announced the £8m signing of the 19-year-old Argentinian centre-back Juan Foyth from Estudiantes on a five-year contract.
Aurier, a 24-year-old Ivory Coast international, was given a suspended two-month jail sentence last year for an assault on a police officer outside a nightclub in Paris. However he protested his innocence and appealed. The conviction had prevented him from entering the United Kingdom last November when PSG played Arsenal in the Champions League and it stood to derail his proposed move to Tottenham.
Under Home Office rules, a person with a prison sentence cannot be granted a UK work visa for another five years. But the French courts have downgraded Aurier’s “convertible” sentence to a fine, meaning he was able to apply as normal for the permit. On Wednesday the Home Office informed Spurs the application had been successful.
Mauricio Pochettino wanted a new right-back after he sold Kyle Walker to Manchester City for £50m and in Aurier he will get a dynamic, if controversial, figure.
The manager has also added the centre-half Davinson Sánchez for a club record £42m from Ajax and Foyth will compete with him and the club’s existing options in the position: Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen and Eric Dier. Kevin Wimmer has been sold to Stoke City for £18m and Cameron Carter-Vickers has been loaned to Sheffield United for the season.
Foyth has represented Argentina at under-20 level 12 times and was a key member of their Fifa Under-20 World Cup and Under-20 South American Championship squads this year.
He said: “I really like Tottenham and I’ve always followed them since I was a boy. I really like the league, too, and now I’m going to try to make the most of this opportunity. It’s a dream for me. I also know that many young players are in the team at the moment. I think there’s a wonderful project here.
“I believe my style of play is about bringing the ball out and keeping it on the floor. I like individual duels and players taking me on. I’m also fast, so that’s what I think I’m going to contribute to the team.”
Harry Kane, the Spurs striker, has described Daniel Levy as a “great businessman”with the fans waiting to see whether the Tottenham chairman will make any deadline-day moves for players. Danny Rose, the injured left-back, had previously caused controversy when he criticised the way that Levy keeps a tight rein on the finances at White Hart Lane.
“I’m with England and I don’t want to talk about it [Rose’s comments] too much,” said Kane at the national team’s training camp. “He said what he said but he now just needs to concentrate on getting himself fit and helping us again at Spurs. Daniel likes to do it on the last day [of the window] to get the best deal and we just have to wait and see.
“He is a great businessman. He knows what he wants, he’s been around for a long time, he’s great for our club and he runs it in a very good way. The facilities we’ve got now are second to none. Some chairmen are different but he does what he does and feels it’s the best way to help out the team.”