Newcastle Sign Goalkeeper Lukas Hornicek From Braga in £25.7m Deal

Newcastle United have signed goalkeeper Lukas Hornicek from Braga in a deal worth £25.7m. The 24-year-old joins on a five-year contract after Newcastle met his release clause with the Portuguese club, and he has been brought in to be the team’s first-choice goalkeeper.

The Czech Republic international becomes Newcastle’s fifth summer signing, following the arrivals of Ewen Jaouen, Bazoumana Toure, Sean Steur and Aladji Bamba. It is a rebuild being carried out at pace, and Hornicek arrives as the man tasked with settling one of the few remaining questions in Newcastle’s squad.

An Emotional Few Days

Hornicek described the speed of the move and what it meant to arrive at St James’ Park. “The last few days have been an emotional rollercoaster from when I first heard about the move and now I’m so happy to be here,” he said.

“It’s a brilliant opportunity in a new league, which I’m very excited about,” he added. “From the very first moment I arrived here, I received a fantastic welcome and really felt the warmth of the club. Everyone has been brilliant in helping me settle in.”

He also spoke about what awaits him on matchdays. “I know Newcastle is a huge football city, with 52,000 fans at St James’ Park creating an incredible atmosphere and pushing the team every game. I can’t wait to play in front of them,” Hornicek said.

The Goalkeeper Newcastle Needed

Newcastle head into the new season needing a settled option between the posts after two goalkeepers left the club this summer. Odysseas Vlachodimos has gone out on loan to Sevilla and John Ruddy was released, leaving a gap that Newcastle have moved to fill early rather than risk entering the campaign short of options.

Hornicek’s rise to that position has been rapid. Born in Vysoke Myto in the Czech Republic, he came through the youth ranks at Sokol Dobrikov and Pardubice before joining Braga, initially on a trial loan, and his move there permanently was reported as the biggest sale in Pardubice’s history at the time. He kept nine clean sheets in 24 competitive matches for Braga in the 2024/25 season, including eight in the Portuguese top flight, before an even stronger follow-up campaign in which he kept 12 clean sheets in 33 league matches with a save percentage above 69%.

He leaves a Braga side that finished fourth in the Primeira Liga last season and reached the semi-finals of the Europa League, results that qualified the club for continental football again this coming campaign. Braga are one of the more consistent forces outside Portugal’s traditional big three of Benfica, Porto and Sporting Lisbon, and Hornicek’s performances behind a well-organised defence played a part in establishing that position. Losing their goalkeeper to a Premier League release clause is the kind of transaction a club of Braga’s size has come to expect when a player of his calibre emerges from the academy pipeline.

Following a Well-Worn Path

Hornicek is not the first Czech goalkeeper to try to make his name in England. Petr Cech spent 15 years in the Premier League with Chelsea and Arsenal, winning four Premier League titles, four FA Cups and the Champions League, and retired in 2019 with 202 Premier League clean sheets to his name, more than any other goalkeeper in the competition’s history. Cech was inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame in 2023 and remains the standard by which any Czech goalkeeper arriving in England will inevitably be measured.

Hornicek is 24, a decade younger than Cech was by the time he had built that reputation at Chelsea, and he arrives with a far shorter track record at the top level. But a five-year contract and a first-choice role at a club the size of Newcastle gives him as clear a platform as any young goalkeeper could ask for to begin building a Premier League career of his own.

Wilson Explains the Swoop

Newcastle sporting director Ross Wilson set out why the club moved for Hornicek this summer. “I’m delighted to welcome Lukas to Newcastle United. His progress in recent years has been remarkable and he has firmly established himself as one of Europe’s top young goalkeepers,” Wilson said.

“We knew there would be no shortage of clubs interested in acquiring Lukas this summer after everything he achieved last season, but it quickly became evident how keen he was to be a part of what we are building here,” he added.

Wilson also pointed to the value of getting the deal done before the start of the season. “I’m really pleased we’ve been able to conclude the deal swiftly, which has enabled Lukas to join the squad during the opening days of our pre-season training camp in Spain. Being here for the next week will only benefit him as he gets to know his new team-mates and coaching staff,” he said.

A Squad Being Rebuilt at Pace

Hornicek’s arrival is one piece of a wider reshaping of Newcastle’s squad this summer. Alongside him, the club has brought in Bazoumana Toure from Hoffenheim for £42m, Aladji Bamba from Monaco for £35.5m, Sean Steur from Ajax for £23m and Ewen Jaouen from Reims for £18.5m.

The outgoing list is just as long. Sandro Tonali left for Tottenham in a club-record £100m deal, and Anthony Gordon joined Barcelona for £69.3m. Kieran Trippier moved to Wolves as a free agent, Odysseas Vlachodimos went out on loan to Sevilla, and Emil Krafth and John Ruddy were both released. Newcastle captain Bruno Guimaraes also looks set to leave, with Arsenal having agreed a £75m fee for the midfielder in the same week Hornicek’s move was completed.

Incoming head coach Matthias Jaissle is currently in Spain overseeing the club’s pre-season training camp, with a formal announcement confirming him as Eddie Howe’s long-term replacement expected soon. Hornicek’s early arrival at that same camp means the goalkeeper will have a full week with his new team-mates and coaching staff before the season begins in earnest.

For a club that has spent big and sold big in equal measure this summer, signing a settled long-term option between the posts offers a rare piece of stability. Hornicek now has a week in Spain to get to know a dressing room that, by the time the transfer window closes, could look very different to the one that finished last season.

The scale of the outgoing business, more than £240m in sales once the Guimaraes deal is finalised, gives Newcastle room to fund signings like Hornicek without breaching Premier League profit and sustainability rules, a consideration that has shaped several of the club’s transfer decisions in recent years. Selling a departing captain and two other first-team regulars in the same window is not a step Newcastle would have chosen if the finances allowed otherwise, but it has left the club able to rebuild specific positions, goalkeeper included, with players they see as long-term rather than short-term fixes.

Hornicek’s task now is straightforward on paper and considerably harder in practice: hold down the Newcastle goal for the next five years the way Cech once did at Chelsea, in a Premier League that will test him from his very first appearance in a black and white shirt.