Barcelona bid £23m for Spurs defender

Reports out of Belgian say Barca have made a bid for Vertonghen

Barcelona are continuing their pursuit of a highly-rated center-back, reportedly offering £23 million for Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen, according to Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws and reported by The Daily Star.

The Belgian international, who arrived from Ajax last summer, has been in exceptional form since establishing himself as one of the club’s starting center-backs, scoring seven goals in 48 appearances during his debut season for the Lilywhites.




After helping his side finish 5th in the Premier league last season, Vertgonhen was named to the 2012-13 Premier League PFA Team of the Year, leading to interest from some of Europe’s biggest clubs, including La Liga champions Barcelona.

The Catalonian giants are looking to sign a dominant defender that can anchor their back line after seeing bids for Brazilian pair David Luiz and Thiago Silva rejected earlier this summer. And with longtime center-back Carles Puyol unconfirmed for the start of the season, newly-appointed Barcelona manager Gerardo Martino is eager to find a suitable replacement as soon as possible.

Martino told reporters at a press conference in Bangkok: ”Right now I’m more worried about whether Puyol will recover.”

The Daily Star is reporting that Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is likely to reject the initial bid and demand a higher fee for the 2012 Dutch Footballer of the Year, whose contract runs until June 2016.

Should Vertonghen leave White Hart Lane in the upcoming weeks, Tottenham will need to do some exploration of their own for a new center-back, with Michael Dawson and Younès Kaboul the only other central defenders available in the first team.

Barcelona are currently operating with only three established center-backs as well – Puyol, Gerard Pique and Javier Mascherano. Twenty two-year-old Marc Bartra is also available, but can not be considered in the same class as the previous three, having made only 24 appearances during his four years as a senior player for the club.

The Blaugrana must now act quickly if they are to secure the services of a world-class center-back ahead of the start of the new season, with less than a month left in the current transfer window and options running out fast.