Southampton signs Brazilian defender Lyanco from Torino

Lyanco becomes Hasenhüttl's sixth permanent signing this summer after Walcott, Perraud, Livramento, Armstrong and Small.

(Representative Image) The 24-year-old, who signed for Torino in 2017, has had 53 appearances for the Serie A club in all competitions.

Southampton has signed Brazilian centre back Lyanco on a four-year contract from Serie A side Torino, the Premier League club said on Wednesday.

Italian and British media reported that the deal for the 24-year-old was in the region of 6.4 million pounds ($8.78 million).

Lyanco, who signed for Torino in 2017, made 53 appearances for the club in all competitions, briefly spending time on loan at Bologna in 2019.

"I grew up in Brazil and the football is different there, then when I went to Italy I learned that you have to be focused more on tactics."

"My dream was to play in the Premier League," said the defender, who has represented both Serbia and Brazil in youth-level football.

Lyanco will bolster manager Ralph Hasenhüttl's defence, which lost the services of Denmark international Jannik Vestergaard to Leicester City earlier this month.

He becomes Hasenhüttl's sixth permanent signing of the summer, following the arrivals of Theo Walcott, Romain Perraud, Tino Livramento, Adam Armstrong and Thierry Small.

Southampton, which has one point from its two league games so far, travels to Newport County in the League Cup on Thursday.