Tottenham set to complete signing of Serge Aurier after Home Office grant PSG defender UK work visa
Spurs agreed a £23m deal with PSG for Aurier last week but the transfer was held up due to the player’s conviction record
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Your support makes all the difference.Tottenham are set to completing the signing of Paris Saint-Germain’s Serge Aurier after the defender was granted a work permit by the Home Office.
Spurs agreed a £23m deal with PSG for Aurier last week, and a five-year contract with the Ivorian right-back, but the transfer was held up due to the player’s conviction record.
Aurier was arrested in May of 2016 for assaulting a police officer outside a Paris nightclub. On 26 September he was convicted and given a two-month ‘convertible’ prison sentence, which he is unlikely ever to serve, as well as a €600 fine and a €1,500 damages bill.
This conviction has previously prevented Aurier from playing in the UK. On the ruling of the Home Office, the player was barred from entry to the UK for PSG’s Champions League game at Arsenal last November.
But the Home Office has finally granted Aurier a work permit, after initial delays earlier this week, meaning he can now complete his move to Tottenham.
The Ivorian took to social media to express his delight at the decision, having been eager to join up with Mauricio Pochettino in north London.
It’s understood PSG had set a midday deadline for the work permit to be granted, otherwise the player could have been transferred to Barcelona or Juventus where a permit would not be required.
Former Lens and Toulouse defender Aurier had been a reported target for the likes of Juve and Manchester United over the course of the summer, following the arrival of Dani Alves at PSG.
Pochettino now looks set to fill the void left by Kyle Walker's transfer to Manchester City earlier in transfer window.
Once the deal is completed as expected, Aurier will become Tottenham's fourth addition in the space of a week after following completing the signings of Ajax defender Davinson Sanchez, goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga and Juan Foyth from Estudiantes.
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