Lewis featured for Newcastle in pre-season but was available to leave the club on loan or a permanent transfer. The 26-year-old spent last season on loan at Watford, who opted against purchasing the left-back permanently in the summer.
In joining Sao Paulo, Lewis became the Brazilian club’s first-ever British player. He has made two substitute appearances for the club so far.
Back on Tyneside, Newcastle have plenty of Brazilian influence with midfielders Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes. When asked if the Brazilian duo had any influence over his move to South America, Lewis told talkSPORT: “To be fair, surprisingly it was neither of them.
I think it was more of a shock to them than other people but I’ve said before that they’re great representatives of Brazil at Newcastle. They’ve been great teammates to me and Bruno said ‘give me a message’ anytime I need anything so I’m sure I’ll be doing that soon.
Lewis is out of contract at Newcastle at the end of June and will be free to join a new club. Sao Paulo will be in a prime position to offer the left-back a contract should he impress during his loan spell.
At the moment, he’s still getting to grips with his new surroundings having left England for the first time in his professional career.
“It’s really good, it’s completely different,” Lewis admitted. “Not many people speak English here so I have to brush up on my Portuguese quite quickly. I’ve got the little cute phrases but to carry a conversation, I’m not quite there yet. I
“ want to be able to communicate with my teammates, the staff, everybody and make the most of my experience.”
Explaining how the loan move came about, Lewis continued: “I was as surprised as most people. I knew I was either going to go on loan this season or permanent so it was just looking at options and my agent brought to me this opportunity.
“For me, I’ve always wanted to test myself outside of England. I was thinking maybe something more like Spain or Germany but when he brought it to me, I had this feeling that it was something I had to take with both hands.”