Fabio Vieira – the €30m Porto wonderkid wanted by Arsenal

Martin Macdonald

• Updated: 23 May 2023 08:47 CDT
• 2 min read

Arsenal are set to take a punt on 20-year-old Fabio Vieira from Porto in January in order to help catalyse a revival in what has been a dismal season so far.

Manager Mikel Arteta is currently under huge pressure at the helm of the Gunners, as he has overseen just four wins from their opening 13 matches of the 2020/21 Premier League season so far.

Goalscoring has been one of their major problems as they are averaging less than a goal a game in league, having scored just 11 in 13.

However, the London side have strangely not been strongly linked with any forward players in the January transfer window, with all their transfer targets rumoured to be either midfielders or defeners.

FootballTransfers previously reported that Arteta was prioritising the recruitment of a right-sided centre-half.

Despite spending big on Atletico Madrid’s Thomas Partey in the summer to bolster their midfield, they continue to be linked with other central midfielders like Houssem Aouar and Youri Tielemans.

Portuguese outlet Record now believes that they have turned their attention to 20-year-old Porto wonderkid Fabio Vieira.

Who is Fabio Vieira?

Vieira has been with Porto since his youth team days and made his senior debut for the team in June of 2020, coming on as a second half substitute in the 1-0 loss at home against Maritimo.

He would make eight appearances for the first time after the league recommenced following lockdown, scoring two goals and recording one assist from midfield. For Porto B, he scored 17 times in 18 starts over the course of the campaign.

In 2020/21 he has actually found minutes in the first team harder to come by as he has featured for just 127 minutes in the Primeira Liga, with him actually been utilised more in the Champions League. Earlier in the season, he scored his first goal in the elite European club competition in a 2-0 win versus Olympiacos.

Vieira reportedly has a £27m [€30m] release clause in his current contract which Arsenal would have to trigger in order to make the transfer happed.

According to Record, they face competition from Marseille for his signature, while Porto are currently working on a new, improved contract to ward away the January suitors.

Any new deal would significantly increase his release clause.