Régis Le Bris issues positive update on Sunderland's deadline-day signing Juan Riquelme Angulo
Sunderland have had confirmation that Juan Riquelmo Angulo can join up with his team mates this week
Régis Le Bris has confirmed that Juan Riquelme Angulo will join his new Sunderland team mates later this week.
The club have been waiting for Angulo’s visa to be approved following his deadline-day switch from Ecuadorian club Independiente del Valle, but he has been given clearance to travel to Wearside. Le Bris says the club have been working closely with Angulo throughout the process, and that the club’s Portuguese first-team coach José Fonte has also been in close contact with the player.
“Juan will arrive at the end of this week,” Le Bris said.
“José [Fonte] is connected with him from day one and had a few video calls for sure. We just had to manage a visa issue, so it took time. Now it's done and he'll travel at the end of the week. We are really well connected with him and he's looking forward to playing with us, joining the club. It's going to be another huge, talented prospect for the football club.”
Angulo is expected to begin training with the team next week, though he has not been registered in the club’s Europa League squad and so won’t be able to feature during the league phase. He will be able to play in the Premier League and domestic cups, however, and is expected to operate as the third striker in the squad.
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Sunderland beat competition from some top European clubs to sign Angulo, and director of football Florent Ghisolfi feels he is a perfect fit for the club.
“He was on the radar for a long time and wanted to come for a long time,” Ghisolfi said.
“The difficulty was his club which I understand totally because they had the Copa Libertadores to play and for them it was better to let him go in December. They didn't understand why a club in the Premier League would want the player right now but for us, it was very important because we knew that we can have playing time for him. So we were aligned here but the difficulty was to convince the club at the end that they were—they were top for the boy, because he has this dream to play in the Premier League, and he had a very good feeling to play for Sunderland. And I think even if he's from South America, that he has the values to match with what is Sunderland.”
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