Ipswich Town has made an approach to French club Lille for Brazilian centre-back Alexsandro Ribeiro, with a reported fee of around €30 million on the table. That number is worth sitting with for a moment: four years ago, this same player moved from Portuguese side Chaves to Lille for €2 million.
From Chaves to the Premier League radar
Alexsandro Victor de Souza Ribeiro, 26, joined Lille in the summer of 2022 and quickly settled into Ligue 1 as a reliable, composed centre-back. At 189 cm, he brings the kind of physical presence that top-flight clubs across Europe covet.
His development at Lille has been rapid enough that a queue formed long before Ipswich arrived. Bologna, Arsenal, Napoli, and Galatasaray have all been linked to Ribeiro during the 2024-2025 window, with reported interest from clubs willing to pay somewhere in the €15 million to €35 million range. Galatasaray, at one point, were quoted an asking price of €35 million by Lille, which gives you a sense of where the French club’s floor sits.
Ipswich’s reported approach at approximately €30 million lands comfortably inside that range, though it remains below the ceiling Lille has apparently set.
