TUNIS — Espérance de Tunis have completed the transfer of Brazilian forward Lucas Ribeiro Costa from Al-Ittihad Tripoli, ending a negotiation that had twice appeared to collapse since the club first announced an agreement in July.
The file was closed in Libya. Espérance vice-president Chokri El Ouaer travelled there on Thursday evening and met a delegation from Al-Ittihad led by the club's executive director, Abdelmajid Saleh; all arrangements were settled at that meeting, according to a statement issued by Espérance. The player, 27, who previously played for Mamelodi Sundowns in South Africa, signs a three-season contract running to June 2029.
According to La Presse, the Libyan club gave way in exchange for a substantial fee plus two players, Diarra and Ben Slimène. The paper reported that Espérance covered the cost through the sales of Tougai and Diakité, and put the total outlay of the window at up to five million dollars.
A window measured in departures
The Ribeiro deal is the last piece of a rebuild rather than a single signing. More than twelve senior players left Bab Souika this summer, along with several squad players, and roughly ten arrived: Hadj Mahmoud, Ribeiro, Castillo, Sahraoui, Essid, Chikhaoui, Bettaieb, Faraj and Becha, with the club still reported to be seeking a left-sided defender.
That turnover is the club's answer to a Champions League campaign it considers unfinished business, and on paper it is the most expensive squad assembled in the Tunisian league. La Presse's assessment was that the market operation demonstrated Espérance's continued financial reach and its ability to unsettle rivals in negotiation — while cautioning that none of it guarantees anything on the pitch.
The file that is not closed
The club's other headline signing remains unresolved. Espérance issued a statement declaring Youcef Belaïli eligible after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled on his case, but Kamel Laaroussi, who heads the club's legal committee, subsequently clarified that the statement was imprecise.
According to Laaroussi, CAS has not yet ruled on the substance. It suspended the execution of the twelve-month ban, which allows the Algerian to sign and be registered, but the final award is still pending. Separately, MC Alger has stated that it holds a written contract with the same player and intends to defend its rights — raising the prospect that Belaïli signed for two clubs and could face sanction.
The structural point
The two files are instructive read together. Espérance's spending power let it force through a transfer that had stalled repeatedly; it did not protect the club from a registration dispute that is now heading toward arbitration between two North African clubs.
The recurring element in both cases is documentation. Ribeiro and Belaïli each arrived carrying unresolved litigation with a former club, and in each case the Tunisian club committed before the legal position was settled. The remedy is not exotic: it is the standard practice of most European clubs, which is to make registration — not merely signature — the condition of payment, and to obtain written clearance from the previous club before announcing anything. Espérance ultimately got there with Ribeiro. It has not yet with Belaïli, and the club will not control the outcome.
Ligue 1 begins with Espérance facing Étoile du Sahel. Whether the most expensive squad in the country also becomes the best one is, as La Presse put it, a question the pitch will answer.