Soccer-Gignac, Uche join Tigres in rare Mexican transfer deals

MEXICO CITY, June 18 (Reuters) - UANL Tigres, determined to become the first Mexican team to win South America's Libertadores Cup, have made a rare move into the European transfer market for French striker Andre-Pierre Gignac and Nigerian forward Ikechukwu Uche. Gignac, Ligue 1's second highest scorer with 21 goals for Olympique de Marseille last season, arrived in Mexico on Thursday for a medical and to sign for Tigres, who face a Libertadores Cup semi-final against Brazil's Internacional next month. "I'm very happy, I've come to win the league and the Libertadores," Gignac said on arrival in the northern city of Monterrey where Tigres are based. "Incredible welcome, thank you all, we're going to do big things," Gignac said on Twitter. The 29-year-old Gignac, a member of France's 2010 World Cup squad, played for Lorient and Toulouse before joining Marseille that year. Gignac arrived in Mexico the day after Uche and the pair could make their debuts for Tigres in the first leg of the team's Libertadores Cup semi-final away to Inter on July 15. Uche, 31 and an African Nations Cup winner with Nigeria in 2013, has joined Tigres from Villarreal where he scored more than 30 goals in three seasons, having previously played for Recreativo Huelva, Getafe, Real Zaragoza and Granada. The Mexican 2015/16 Apertura championship kicks off on July 25. Mexican team plays as guests in the Libertadores Cup, which went into a six-week break for the Copa America after the quarter-finals. The closest a Mexican team has come to wining South America's top club competition was when Cruz Azul lost the 2001 final to Boca Juniors and Guadalajara lost to Internacional in the 2010 final. (Reporting by Carlos Calvo; Writing by Rex Gowar, editing by Prtiha Sarkar)