Tottenham bid €25m for ‘great defensive talent’ worth ‘€90m’ with Chelsea, Arsenal also interested | OneFootball

Tottenham have made a ‘verbal offer’ worth €25million for Bayer Leverkusen defender Piero Hincapie, according to reports in Germany.

Hincapie impressed for Ecuador at the World Cup and has been a consistent performer for the Bundesliga club.

There is a lot of interest in the 21-year-old, who is particularly desirable as a left-footed central defender.

Chelsea were looking to sign a player of this mold for a while and recently brought in Benoit Badiashile from AS Monaco, but will probably remain in the market for another centre-half.

RB Leipzig’s Josko Gvardiol is one of their top targets but will cost an absolute fortune, with Hincapie likely to be substantially cheaper.

Hincapie was signed for €6.35m in August 2021, with Leverkusen expected to make a tremendous profit when he does move on.

He already has 24 caps for Ecuador and has played every minute of his club’s current five-match winning run in the Bundesliga.

And Tottenham have made their move with two days left in the winter transfer window.

Antonio Conte is keen to sign a new central defender, with a left-footed one certainly being desirable.

Tottenham currently have Clement Lenglet, who will return to Barcelona when his loan spell ends at the end of 2022-23.

Hincapie would be a great acquisition and someone who could play in their defence for the next decade.

The BILD report states that Hincapie ‘is in great demand, especially in England’.

He ‘tops the list’ for Spurs after Conte ‘instructed his bosses’ to sign the defender back in December.

Spurs are ‘getting serious’ having ‘verbally’ offered €25m, the report adds.

Leverkusen are reluctant to sell their young talent and would need to get a replacement in, which should prove to be difficult with the transfer deadline coming up.

The Sun add that Bayer want a whopping €90m, which Spurs are unsurprisingly ‘unwilling’ to pay.

It is said that Spurs would be open to signing Hincapie and loaning him back to the German side until the end of the season.

Should they fail to land the youngster this month, the Londoners are expected to go back in for him in the summer, although Chelsea and Arsenal ‘are also among the prospects for Hincapie’.