Hearts to net £2.4m for Goncalves

HEARTS will collect a sizeable £2.4million transfer fee for Jose Goncalves next summer if German club Nuremberg invoke their option to sign the defender permanently.

The Evening News has learned that the pre-agreed price for Goncalves' is 3 million euros, applicable at the end of his season-long loan in Bavaria.

The sum is further evidence of Vladimir Romanov's determination to secure top dollar for any sellable asset.

Goncalves, reluctant to speak in great detail about the deal, confirmed the figure today. "That is the correct fee. Nuremberg have first option," he said.

A Portuguese under-21 internationalist, he cost £700,000 to lure from FC Thun in January 2006. He initially joined Hearts on loan from FBK Kaunas, the Lithuanian club financed by Romanov's Ukio Bankas Investment Group, but later became a fully fledged Tynecastle employee.

Romanov rejected a £1.3m offer from Celta Vigo for the player 12 months ago and could now secure an impressive profit of more than 200 per cent on his initial outlay.

Nuremberg intend to press for promotion from Germany's Bundesliga 2 this season, after which they will decide whether to sign Goncalves permanently.

If no deal is forthcoming the full-back will return to Tynecastle next summer.

Meanwhile, David Obua, the Ugandan internationalist, received work permit clearance yesterday to begin his Hearts career in earnest.

At an independent appeal hearing attended by manager Csaba Laszlo and managing director Campbell Ogilvie, the African was granted a UK permit and is expected to arrive in Edinburgh over the weekend but will not feature in Saturday's opening SPL fixture with Motherwell.

Obua joins Hearts from the South African club Kaizer Chiefs and is comfortable playing anywhere on the left flank or in an advanced midfield role behind the forward line.