João Palhinha returns to England with Tottenham: “My game belongs in the Premier League” | OneFootball

Portugal international João Palhinha completed his switch from Bayern Munich to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, signing a loan deal with a view to a permanent transfer with the London club.

The move sees Palhinha return to the English capital one year after leaving Fulham for Bayern, where he never really settled under Vincent Kompany. Spurs will have the option to buy Palhinha for €30m at the end of his loan, during which the Premier League club will pay his full salary.

“I’m really, really happy,” Palhinha told Spurs’ in-house media. “It’s such an amazing feeling that I had when I arrived here at the training ground and I’m really motivated for the next steps, so I just want to enjoy it with my team-mates, start to work with the coach and start to win matches with this club.

“It’s an amazing feeling to return to the Premier League and to return to London as well. I really loved to live here before and I’m so happy to be here again and to enjoy the Premier League because in my opinion – as I’ve always said – it’s the best league in the world. It’s what me and my family wanted at this moment and I’m really happy for this.”

“I think my type of game, it belongs to the Premier League. I’ve always said that I really enjoyed the two seasons that I had at Fulham, it was a dream come true and probably one of the best memories I have in my football career belonged to the Premier League. I really enjoyed playing against top teams, also against Tottenham in that moment and now I can be part of this, such a great club.

“I’m a player with a lot of hunger to win tackles, as you know. It’s one of my main focuses in the game, to try to help my team-mates without the ball to recover as soon as possible and of course when we have the ball, try to play simple, to try to give the team the best options. If I need to choose a word to describe me, it’s going to be a “hungry” player for sure.

“Of course, I have a few players who I’ve played with before – Mathys Tel, Pedro Porro – and other players I have played against in the Premier League. Probably some of them will not have such good memories of me on the pitch! We had some duels together but I’m just really happy to be here and meet my new team-mates.

“The crowd motivates me as well. I think the moment, in my case, when I make a tackle and I feel the crowd pushing me, I don’t have words for this because it’s what gives me a lot of power and it’s really special here in the Premier League from the crowds. I just want to experience in our stadium the people pushing me and my team-mates in each tackle we make.”

Tottenham, who won the Europa League last term and will play Champions League football this season, are opening a new chapter under recently-hired manager Thomas Frank. Their opening match of the upcoming Premier League campaign sees them host Burnley on Saturday 16th August.