Arsenal sign Uruguay international Lucas Torreira from Sampdoria

London, July 10: Arsenal have completed the signing of Uruguay midfielder Lucas Torreira from Sampdoria.

The Premier League club is reported to have paid £26million to sign the 22-year-old, who appeared in all five of Uruguay's matches at the World Cup.

Arsenal teased the announcement with a social media video before announcing the deal themselves on Monday.

Torreira becomes the fourth major signing for new Arsenal head coach Unai Emery, following Bernd Leno, Stephan Lichtsteiner and Sokratis Papastathopoulos to the club.

Say hello to our new No 11 🦁

You can get your @LTorreira34 shirts now 👉 https://t.co/tcx9JnmtY3 pic.twitter.com/MkScILvye0

— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) July 10, 2018

During his two years at Sampdoria after joining from Pescara, Torreira made 74 appearances and scored four goals for the club.

In a brief statement announcing his departure, the Serie A club wished Torreira the "greatest good luck for the rest of his career".

Arsenal are also expected to announce the signing of France Under-20 international Matteo Guendouzi, who is set to join from Lorient.

The wait is over… it's #TimeForTorreira 👍

Welcome to Arsenal, @LTorreira34 🔴 pic.twitter.com/wnUDYuDMeS

— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) July 10, 2018

"In Lucas Torreira, we have signed a young player who is a very bright talent in the game," said Emery.

"A midfielder with great quality, I have enjoyed watching his performances for Sampdoria in the past two seasons, and we all saw him do very well for Uruguay in the World Cup.

"He is a young player already with good experience, but who wants to keep on growing. We welcome Lucas to Arsenal and look forward to him joining us soon for pre-season."

Torreira will wear the number 11 shirt vacated by Mesut Ozil, who has switched to number 10 for the new season, and will link up with the squad in early August after a post-World Cup break.

"I feel very happy (to have signed for Arsenal)," Torreira told the club website. "I want to make the most of this opportunity life has given me. I am really looking forward to starting this new adventure.

"For a while I've been receiving loads of messages in my social media accounts. I guess it's all down to the fact there were talks of me moving to Arsenal even before the World Cup started. I am very happy and I hope I can meet all the fans very soon.

"Did I know that the fans were tracking my flight to London online? No, I didn't know about it, but I am here and I will see them all soon."

Source: OPTA