Evening Standard
·6 February 2024
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Yahoo sportsEvening Standard
·6 February 2024
Lucas Bergvall has revealed he spoke to Dejan Kulusevski about life at Tottenham before making the decision to move to the club and turn down Barcelona.
The 18-year-old has signed for Spurs for a fee in the region of £8.5million and will officially join up with his new team-mates in the summer, with Bergvall staying at Swedish top-flight side Djurgarden for the rest of this season.
Barcelona had seemingly been leading the race to sign Bergvall, but Spurs made their move and the teenager visited the club's training ground last week with his family, meeting Ange Postecoglou and Daniel Levy.
Bergvall travelled to Barcelona a day later to hear their pitch, before ultimately making the decision to choose Tottenham over the Spanish giants.
The midfielder has made one senior cap for Sweden, and was in touch with international team-mate Kulusevski when considering his options.
"We talked a little before," Bergvall told Sportbladet.
"In general, how the club works, how they work, how they train, what the days look like. It wasn't a persuasive talk like that. He just said the club was great and I noticed that when I got there. I got an incredible reception, it's a very family club but incredible people."
Spurs had been tracking Bergvall for a number of months, with technical director Johan Lange leading the push to persuade the midfielder to make the move to north London.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta has claimed Tottenham "offered way more money", admitting there were certain things the LaLiga side "can't offer", but Bergvall has insisted he struggled to picked between the two clubs.