Hearts sign Brazilian midfielder Ageu for club-record fee

Hearts have announced the arrival of Brazilian midfielder Ageu for a club record transfer fee.

The 23-year-old joins the Jambos from Portuguese top-flight side Santa Clara on a four-year contract.

Although the amount remains undisclosed, the Edinburgh club revealed the deal will eclipse the £850,000 they paid Genk to sign Bosnian winger Mirsad Beslija in January 2006.

Ageu started his career with Cruzeiro in his homeland before moving to Santa Clara in 2023. He helped the team from the Azores islands win promotion to the Primeira Liga in his first season and then spent last term on loan with another Portuguese second-tier side, Alverca.

The Jambos are also hoping to add German goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow, while forwards Musa Drammeh and Kenneth Vargas are among a group of players who could depart Tynecastle before the transfer window closes.

Ageu is still awaiting a visa so is unlikely to be involved on Saturday as Hearts head to Livingston aiming to restore the feelgood factor by moving to the top of the William Hill Premiership in front of a bumper travelling support.

More than 5,000 Jambos are expected to make the short journey to West Lothian despite the frustration of a Premier Sports Cup exit against St Mirren a fortnight ago and then a 3-3 draw at home to Motherwell in the league last Saturday.

Centre-back Stuart Findlay believes the prospect of leapfrogging Celtic at the top – even if only overnight – would banish any lingering negativity from the last two matches.

“You get the disappointing result to go out the cup, and then being 3-0 down against Motherwell, it maybe paints a picture that things haven’t been great the last couple of weeks,” he said. “But when you look at the bigger picture, I think we’ve started the season really, really well.

“To be sitting where we are, with a chance to beat Livingston and go top of the league until the Old Firm game a day later, I think it’s a good position to be in.

“When you look at where we were after 60 minutes last week, to then get out of the game with a point, the first thing I said in the changing room was ‘if we win next week, this turns into a much bigger point. It turns out to be a very, very good point’.

“To be sitting on 10 points after four games would be absolutely magic. We know there’s going to be a massive Hearts support going through. It’s incredible, the tickets that they’ve sold.

“There’s not many teams in the league that would be able to do that. I think it’s going to create an absolutely incredible atmosphere for us as an away team, to probably have more fans than the home team. It’s something that I’ve probably never experienced myself.”