Tottenham fended off a late move from Newcastle United to sign wonderkid Luka Vuskovic from Hajduk Split, sources have told Football Insider.
Spurs announced the capture of the 16-year-old Croatian on Monday after finalising an agreement with Split, although he won’t join until he turns 18 in 2025.
It is believed that Newcastle had an interest in Vuskovic and made contact over a potential deal.
But they had been told that Vuskovic had already decided to sign for Tottenham.
Football Insider has learned that the London giants will pay £8.7million to Split for Vuskovic.
He has already played 11 times for the Croatian club but is yet to feature in the 2023-24 campaign.
The wonderkid, who signed a deal running until 2030, will now continue his development in his homeland before joining Tottenham in 2025.
Vuskovic is also capped at Under-17 level by Croatia, and helped Split win the domestic cup with three appearances in the 2022-23 campaign.
Upon signing, the 6ft 4in star insisted it is a “great honour to see that a club like Tottenham has shown such a desire and put in so much effort to bring in a player of my age”.
He has been compared to ex-Barcelona great Gerard Pique.
Tottenham currently line up with Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven at the back under recently-appointed boss Ange Postecoglou.
Meanwhile, Newcastle have signed some top talent since their mega-money takeover in 2021 – including Garang Kuol and Yankuba Minteh – but missed out on Vuskovic.
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