Wolverhampton Wanderers completed the club’s first winter signing a day before the deadline, bringing in Olympiakos forward Daniel Podence on a four-and-a-half year deal.
A Sporting CP youth product, Podence has spent two year with the Greek side, scoring 13 goals and assisting 14 more in 68 appearances across all competitions. The 24-year-old scored a goal against Spurs back in September in a 2-2 Champions League group stage meeting.
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Podence’s arrival grows an already heavy Portuguese presence at Wolves, with experienced internationals Rui Patricio and Joao Moutinho both already playing major roles for Wolves, plus highly rated assets in Ruben Neves and Diogo Jota. Podence has yet to earn his first international cap for Portugal, but was involved in the November Euro 2020 qualifiers, on the bench as an unused substitute for the 6-0 win over Lithuania.
No fee was reported publicly in the Wolves release, but reports have the cost at around $22 million, which would represent nearly a tripling of his value from the $7.7 million Olympiakos purchased him for two years ago.
“I’m very excited. It was always a childhood dream of mine to play in the Premier League and I look at this achievement as a dream come true,” Podence said to the club website upon announcement of the signing. “Wolves are a team with a big project, with ambitious goals to look forward to, where I’ll get to meet former team-mates with whom I had the pleasure to play with in the past and I hope to be very successful here. My individual goals are to play as much as possible, help the team with goals and assists and collectively, I’d like to qualify for the Champions League. That is a goal that’s within our reach, and I hope we can have a better season than last year.”