Who is Pedro Porro? Strengths and weaknesses of Tottenham Hotspur transfer target

Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly closing in on the signing of Pedro Porro from Sporting Lisbon. He has been identified as someone to compete with Emerson Royal and Matt Doherty at right wing-back.

The Guardian claim the deal is ‘close’. Here is a look at everything you need to know about the player...

Who is Pedro Porro?

Porro, who is 23-years-old, was born in Don Benito in the south of Spain and started his career at local side Gimnástico Don Benito. He then had spells as a youngster at Rayo Vallecano, CF Peralada and Girona.

Man City spell

Manchester City swooped to sign him back in 2019 but he never made a first-team appearance for Pep Guardiola’s side. Instead, he was immediately loaned out to Real Vallodolid in his first season and made 15 appearances for the La Liga outfit. He was then shipped to Sporting Lisbon and was snapped up permanently by the Portuguese giants after impressing on loan for two years.

What has been said about him?

Amid links to Spurs and other Premier League teams this winter, Sporting Lisbon boss Ruben Amorim has continued to insist that Porro will be staying. In his most recent comments he said, as per 90min: “We have some targets. I don’t look at the right-back position as an obsession to hire because I’m counting on Porro. Right now, I’m counting on Porro, Esgaio, Travassos and Esteves, what a side we have in the A and B teams.”

Strengths

Porro is a decent age and has the potential to grow and develop in the future still which would make him a great long-term signing for Antonio Conte’s side. He gets up and down the right flank and has chipped in with an impressive 11 assists in 25 games in all competitions so far this term.

As per WhoScored, he has an average rating of 7.19 this season which makes him Sporting’s second best performer. He has the most assists in their squad ahead of ex-Spurs winger Marcus Edwards and makes the joint-highest number of key passes (2.4 per game) too which highlights his influence from defence.

Weaknesses

Perro lacks experience of playing in England and it may inevitably take a while for him to get up to speed with the Premier League. The last time he was here with City he didn’t play and he is only used to playing in Spain and Portugal so far. His passing succession rate is also only 74.9% which is something he will look to work on.