West Ham United’s new signing Nayef Aguerd has revealed former Wolves defender Romain Saiss helped him decide to come to the Premier League.
The 26-year-old has sealed a move to the London Stadium, joining the Hammers on a five-year deal.
The star made his move from Rennes, for whom he made 66 league appearances.
He is their first acquisition of the summer.
And West Ham have certainly paid a premium to get him.
According to BBC Sport, the deal is worth £30 million, making him their fourth most expensive signing ever after Sebastien Haller, Felipe Anderson and Kurt Zouma.
Interestingly, Morocco star Aguerd has said that his international teammate Saiss – now of Besiktas – helped him come to a decision to make the move.
Above: Aguerd next to Saiss on Morocco duty.
He told whufc.com: “I also spoke to [Wolverhampton Wanderers defender] Roman Saïss, the captain of our Morocco national team, a lot about coming here and playing in the Premier League.
“When I told him about West Ham’s interest, and asked him about the league, he told me ‘You need to sign there. You will love the country, you will love London, and the football is the best in the world’.
Having been with Wolves for six years, Saiss made many a trip down to the capital.
And he has been to the London Stadium specifically on four occasions.
Aguerd will be an interesting watch this season at West Ham, as star says Saiss helped convince him to make move
It will be intriguing to see how Saiss’ international teammate gets on in his first season in English football.
The Irons have paid a lot of money for a player who is relatively little known.
Clearly they will have watched him plenty of times to be comfortable spending such an amount.
Hopefully, he doesn’t play too well when Wolves face West Ham in the Premier League on October 1 and January 14.