Tottenham have reportedly suffered a blow in the transfer market, with their long-term target Alen Halilovic thought to have agreed a deal to sign for Bayern Munich.
The Croatian sensation has been thrilling spectators in his homeland with his displays of skill and ability on the ball, after becoming the youngest player to ever play for Dinamo Zagreb at the age of 16 years and 101 days.
Quickly, a host of European clubs from the major leagues were scouting the attacking midfielder. This year Halilovic has even broken into the Croatian senior side despite his age, and is widely being described as the ‘new Luka Modric’.
Spurs were very keen on signing the 17-year-old, after landing Modric from the Croatian club back in 2008, and are believed to have had a bid of €20 million accepted.
However, the stumbling block has been Halilovic’s father, Sead, who has not allowed his son to move to White Hart Lane without a guarantee that he would be getting regular first-team football.
It is believed that Halilovic senior wanted an assurance that the attacking midfielder would get at least 45 minutes in every game, which Tottenham could not do.
Andre Villas-Boas was keen to breed Halilovic into the first-team fold gradually, as he has done with Erik Lamela, with the youngster set to initially start in the youth ranks.
As such, a deal that is said to have been close for a number of months is thought to be dead. With Spurs failing to land their man, Bayern are said to have swooped in and reports in both Italy and Germany are stating that he has agreed to a switch to the Allianz Arena.
The story was broken on Tuesday evening by Italian outlet Sportmediaset, and this has been backed up on Twitter by sources in Germany, including the chief reporter for Sky Sports News in the country.
The details of transfer fee, wages or even a confirmation of the deal has yet to be revealed by either club.
If and when the transfer is pushed through it will be interesting to hear the thoughts of Halilovic senior, as his son will have a job on his hands getting a first-team spot with Pep Guardiola’s side.
With Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Toni Kroos, Javi Martinez, Mario Gotze and more all vying for a place in the Bayern midfield, the likelihood is that Halilovic will have to wait for a chance.
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