Wednesday 18 February 2015 19:50, UK
West Ham have completed the signing of former Paris Saint-Germain striker Nene until the end of the season.
The 33-year-old Brazilian arrives on a free transfer after leaving Qatar side Al-Gharafa in January and will help ease the injury concerns of Hammers manager Sam Allardyce following a long-term injury to club-record signing Andy Carroll.
West Ham confirmed on Friday that Carroll will miss the remainder of the season as he requires surgery on a knee ligament injury suffered in the 0-0 draw at Southampton last week.
Allardyce can call upon Carlton Cole, whose move to West Brom fell through in January, and summer signings Enner Valencia and Diafra Sakho in attack but co-chairman David Sullivan earlier admitted they were looking to sign an attacking player who is a free agent.
Nene fits that category and has a decent scoring record in Spain and France, where his 21 goals in 35 Ligue 1 games for PSG saw him finish joint-top goalscorer in 2011-12 along with Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud, who played for Montpellier at the time.
Nene, who becomes just the second Brazilian to represent West Ham, with the other being Ilan, expressed his delight at sealing the move.
"I am very excited and happy to be here. I'm proud to come to a really big club like West Ham and I'm going to do my best to help the team," Nene said.
"I've been thinking about coming back to Europe for a few months because here the football, the ambience, everything is better.
"It's a really good challenge for me, to come to a competition like the Premier League. It's the most competitive in the world so this is the motivation for me."
Nene is also looking forward to showing West Ham fans his wide range of attacking skills.
"I like to get on the ball and show my technique," Nene added.
"I like taking free-kicks, so practice to be good at that. I like making assists - that is my real work, to make the final pass to put the striker in a good position to score the goals."
