Tottenham Join the Chase for Trincao as His Saudi Move Stalls

Tottenham Hotspur have joined the race for Francisco Trincao, according to Portuguese newspaper Record, moving in as the Sporting CP forward pauses a lucrative switch to Saudi Arabia. The 26-year-old Portugal international scored 11 goals and set up 15 more in 50 matches last season. Al-Ahli have already offered around €50 million (about £42 million) to sign him.

Spurs need more than a name that sells shirts. Tottenham head coach Roberto De Zerbi spent last season without three first-choice creators to injury, and the club only avoided relegation on the final day.

Record Breaks the News of Spurs’ Interest

Record’s report landed on July 10, and it spread fast. Sports Mole, GiveMeSport, TeamTalk and Football365 all repeated the same line within a day: Tottenham are eyeing a move for Trincao this summer, months after his last Premier League experience ended on loan at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The interest slots into a summer Spurs have already spent heavily on. The club has completed six signings this window: goalkeeper Martin Dubravka, defenders Marcos Senesi and Andy Robertson on free transfers, Jan Paul van Hecke for £52 million from Brighton, and Sandro Tonali plus Mateus Fernandes in deals totalling £185 million.

The rebuild cuts both ways. Tottenham also has Luka Vuskovic set to join Brighton after an improved bid was accepted, thinning a young defensive pool as the club funnels money forward. Trincao would be the seventh major arrival, and the first aimed squarely at a final third that malfunctioned for most of last season.

Why Did Trincao Pause His Move to Saudi Arabia?

Trincao asked for a few days to weigh his options after Portugal’s World Cup ended in the round of 16 against Spain, delaying what had looked like a done deal with Al-Ahli. Tottenham, Manchester City and Liverpool now have a short window to make their case before he commits to the Saudi Pro League.

Just days earlier, the picture looked settled. Italian transfer insider Fabrizio Romano said on his YouTube channel that a move was all but sealed.

Francisco Trincao is now very close to joining Al Ahli.

Romano credited the move to Portuguese connections all around: Al-Ahli sporting director Rui Pedro Braz, Trincao himself and the player’s representatives are all Portuguese.

The money explains why it got that far. Al-Ahli, hunting a marquee replacement for Riyad Mahrez after he left the club on a free transfer, tabled around €50 million and were prepared to roughly quadruple Trincao’s reported €2.5 million net annual salary. His World Cup barely registered before that offer landed; he made just one appearance for Portugal, coming on for Joao Felix in the 64th minute of a 5-0 group win over Uzbekistan on June 23. Then the tournament ended for his country, and he asked for time.

A Front Three Undone by Injuries

De Zerbi barely had a fit attacking unit to work with in 2025/26.

• Xavi Simons – ruptured his ACL in April and is not expected back until early 2027.
• Dejan Kulusevski – missed the entire season recovering from knee surgery.
• James Maddison – returned from his own ACL injury only in the campaign’s final weeks.
• Mohammed Kudus – was sidelined by a quad injury in early April.

The results showed it. Tottenham finished just two points above the relegation zone and needed the final day of the season to confirm survival. It continues a wider pattern: the club has finished 17th in the Premier League in two of its past few campaigns.

Trincao’s versatility is the appeal here. He can push Kudus for the right-wing spot or drop into the number 10 zone that Maddison and Simons were meant to share between them.

From Barcelona Reject to Sporting’s Talisman

Braga produced him first. He made his first-team debut there in 2018, won the Taca da Liga two seasons later, and then Barcelona paid a reported €31 million fee for him in January 2020, a number that looked enormous within a year of his arrival at Camp Nou.

His first crack at the Premier League, a season-long loan at Wolves in 2021-22, produced just three goals in 30 appearances, by QNC News’s tally, and briefly looked like the end of his top-flight ambitions.

Sporting rebuilt him. He played 11 Champions League matches and scored four goals in the 2025/26 continental campaign, form that carried him into Portugal’s World Cup squad this summer.

• 47 goals in 208 appearances since rejoining Sporting permanently in 2023.
• Two Primeira Liga titles and a domestic cup won since his return.
• A reported €31 million move from Braga to Barcelona first put him on Europe’s radar back in 2020.

Sporting rewarded the turnaround. The club renewed his contract in March, extending it to June 2030 and fixing his release clause at €60 million.

The €60 Million Number Behind the Chase

That release clause sets a ceiling. Sporting have reportedly signalled a willingness to sell for less, somewhere between €40 million and €50 million, but Al-Ahli’s offer already sits at the top of that range, leaving little incentive to discount further for a Premier League club that has not yet formalised a bid. Independent market trackers price him lower still: Transfermarkt lists his valuation at around €40 million, well under the release figure.

Manchester City’s interest is the most conditional of the four. New Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca is said to admire Trincao’s technical range, but the club will not move for him unless Manchester City winger Savinho leaves first, and Tottenham has been the side most persistently linked with signing the Brazilian.

Would Trincao Even Start Ahead of Kudus?

Not automatically. Trincao’s case rests on a strong league campaign in Portugal. He has not played a full Premier League season since that difficult loan at Wolves, and reporters covering the race are still split on whether he would start over Kudus or simply add depth.

One assessment of the move raised a fair question: whether Trincao would be a genuine difference-maker for Spurs, or just another good attacker added to a squad that already carries options in the final third.

The scouting case leans positive. GiveMeSport described his dribbling as having “shades of Lionel Messi,” and he is left-footed, comfortable cutting in from the right or sitting centrally behind a striker. What nobody has tested yet is how that translates against Premier League physicality across a full season, rather than in flashes during a loan five years ago.

Sporting’s preseason continues regardless of the noise around him. The club faces Celtic in a club friendly on July 14, with Trincao’s next move expected to be resolved in the days around it.