Brighton and Hove Albion are in agreement to buy teenage center Vitor Reis from Palmeiras.
Palmeiras values Reis in more than 25 million pounds (30. 1 million euros, 31 million dollars), Brighton’s offers do not leave that figure as conversations continue.
The Brazilian club is reluctant to let the defender go and has informed him that they would prefer to keep him for the next Club World Cup, which begins in June this year.
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Arsenal and Real Madrid are among a host of more sensible European clubs that have already expressed interest in the centre-back.
Reis has played in Brazil all the way up to the Under-17 level and has made 22 appearances for the Palmeiras first team since making his senior debut in June.
The 18-year-old signed his first professional contract with Palmeiras towards the end of the 2022 season, penning a deal through 2025, and swiftly established himself as a regular starter in central defence for Abel Ferreira’s side.
The defender arrived here in the formula of the Palmeiras youngsters at the same time as forwards Endrick and Luis Guilherme, who moved to Real Madrid and West Ham United respectively in 2024.
Analysis via Andy Naylor
Brighton has its history of the winter window to sign with the future.
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Veteran captain Lewis Dunk is 33 years old and Adam Webster will turn 30 tomorrow. Both players have suffered injuries this season. The other veteran central defenders are Reis’s compatriot Igor Julio, 26, and Dutch foreigner Jan Paul van Hecke, 24.
Igor bought from Fiorentina in the summer 2023 move window. 19-year-old Ruairi McConville has made a breakthrough this season, featuring in the teams of the day as an unused replacement and gaining foreign popularity in Northern Ireland.
(Superior Image: Ricardo Moreira/Getty Images)