West Ham United are reportedly keen to pay £26 million to bring Copa America star Gustavo Cuellar to the Premier League.
If any West Ham United fans were willing to risk a blurry-eyed Monday morning half asleep on the number 12 bus, they were certainly rewarded.
Radio Globo claimed back in May that Gustavo Cuellar could be on his way to the London Stadium for a staggering £26 million. It is not often in this day and age that a potential big-money signing is a virtual unknown but Cuellar was a million miles from being a household name in the English capital.
A 26-year-old midfielder who plays in Brazil for Flamengo, Cuellar is famed in South America for his tenacity and class in the centre of the park. He is a defensive midfielder by trade but, as any watching West Ham fans would have found out in Monday morning’s Copa America clash between Colombia and Paraguay, he has a lot to offer in the final third too.
Cuellar scored the winner in a Man of the Match performance as Colombia secured a 100 per cent record in the Copa America group stage, bursting forward to fire through the Paraguay goalkeeper’s legs.
That was his first international goal and only the third of his senior career. He also completed 91 per cent of his passes, three interceptions and two tackles.
And there should be no one questioning his £26 million price-tag now.
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