Transfers: Joao Palhinha to Spurs?

The Portuguese midfielder, formerly of Fulham looks like he may be making a move back to London and the Premier League this summer.

The 2025 Summer Transfer Window has seen Thomas Frank’s Spurs side make several signings ahead of the Danish Head Coach’s first full season in charge of the Lilywhites since he took charge of the North London Club on, following the departure of Ange Postecoglou Thursday 12th June 2025.

So far, there have been five deals that have been completed by Spurs – the highest profile being Mohammed Kudus’ move to Tottenham from fellow London and Premier League Club West Ham United. Other players signed by the Lilywhites also include the likes of Mathys Tel (from Bayern Munich), Kevin Danso (from Lens), Luka Vuskovic (from Hadjuk Split), and finally Kota Takai (from Kawasaki Frontale).

The latest player to have been linked with a high profile move to Spurs this summer is former Fulham and current Bayern Munich and Portugal international midfielder Joao Palhinha, news which was first reported by highly acclaimed journalist Fabrizio Romano. Palhinha joined the German Giants back on Thursday 11th July 2024, for a rumoured transfer fee of up to £47.4 million.

Despite that and after having only spent one season with the Bavarians, it is rumoured that they could let him leave for between £22 million and £ 26 million, according to a report from football.london.

He began his professional career in Portugal at Sporting CP, and began playing for the club’s B team in 2014, before going on to spend the 2015/16 season at fellow Portuguese club Moreirense, where he made 29 appearances, helping the club to a 12^th place finish with 36 points in the end.

Following his impressive spell out on loan, Palhinha then began playing for the Sporting CP first team, though he did have further loan spells in the 2016/17 and from 2018 to 2020 with Belenenses and Braga, respectively.

For Belenenses, he made 18 appearances, scoring a goal and getting an assist as well. As for Braga, he made 76 appearances for the club over a loan spell that lasted two seasons, scoring 6 goals and getting 3 assists to boot as well.

In the 2018/19 season, Palhinha and Braga finished in 4th place with as many as 67 points, which was enough for them to qualify for the following season’s UEFA Europa League. Then, in the 2019/20 campaign, Braga, with Joao in the team, ended up in 3rd place with 60 points, which was enough to qualify for the UEFA Europa League once again.

João Palhinha was then a regular in the Sporting CP first team for the next two seasons. In the 2020/21 campaign, the midfielder was able to make 38 appearances in all competitions, with 32 of these coming in the Portuguese top flight. He was part of the team that went on to win the title and qualify for the UEFA Champions League after earning 85 points, 5 more than the runners-up, Porto. Then, in his second and final full season in the Sporting CP first team (2021/22), he made a total of 27 further appearances in the league alone, where he scored 3 goals.

His efforts helped the team to a second place finish after earning 85 points once again, but they lost out on the title in the end to the aforementioned FC Porto, who earned 91 points. Sporting did still qualify for the UEFA Champions League again for the following season.

A move to the Premier League did follow for Palhinha on Monday 4th July 2022, when he sealed a move to Fulham for a reported transfer fee of as little as £17 million, where he signed an initial five year contract at Craven Cottage.

His first full season with the Cottagers was in the 2022/23 Premier League campaign, which saw him make 35 appearances, scoring as many as 3 goals as a defensive midfielder. He was able to help his side finish in 10th place with 52 points, and they missed out on European Football by a margin of only 9 points in the end.

The following campaign (2023/24) saw Fulham fall to 13th by the time that all 38 games had been played, but Joao Palhinha remained impressive in his 33 appearances in the English Top Flight, where he was also able to scored 4 goals as well as well as getting 1 assist to boot to help his side earn a total of 47 points overall.

Palhinha’s impressive spell at Fulham caught the attention of German Giants Bayern Munich, who, back on Thursday 11th July 2024, for a rumoured transfer fee of £47.4 million (€56 million), signed an initial four year contract that would expire on 30th June 2028.

The 2024/25 season saw the Portugal international midfielder make 25 appearances in all competitions for the Bavarians last term, with 17 of these coming in the German Bundesliga. He helped his side to the title in Germany, with his side earning as many as 82 points in the end. He has now been linked with a move back to the Premier League with Spurs.

Joao Palhinha is a player who has performed impressively for a number of clubs over the years like Sporting CP and Fulham and optimism would be high that he would become an important part of Tottenham’s starting eleven should he indeed choose to put pen to paper at the North London Club by the time that the 2025 Summer Transfer Window closes at the beginning of September.

Excitement and anticipation are both building rapidly ahead of the start of the 2025/26 Premier League season to get underway, and all eyes will be on the action to come with teams set to fight for the title, for European Football, or to avoid the disaster that is relegation to the EFL Championship.

Spurs will hope that if they do sign Joao Palhinha, he will be able to help them secure qualification for the highly prestigious UEFA Champions League for what would be the second season in succession.

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