Bayern Munich have reportedly joined Tottenham Hotspur and Napoli in the race to sign Genoa defender Radu Dragusin in the January transfer window.
After helping Il Grifone earn promotion back to the top flight of Italian football last season, Dragusin has continued to go from strength to strength in Serie A.
The 21-year-old has two goals and one assist under his belt from 19 Serie A games this season and has not missed a single minute in the top flight, earning plenty of glances from across Europe in the process.
Tottenham have seemingly positioned themselves at the head of the queue to sign Dragusin and are in negotiations with Genoa, but the Lilywhites are yet to strike an agreement with their Italian counterparts.
With Tottenham still failing to meet Genoa's financial demands, Italian champions Napoli are supposedly aiming to hijack Spurs' pursuit of Dragusin, but they are facing stiff competition from another domestic title-winner.
According to Sky Deutschland reporter Florian Plettenberg, Bayern - whose search for a new centre-back has been well-documented - have also registered their interest in the Romania international, and club chiefs have been informed about the conditions of a possible transfer.
Bayern would apparently be prepared to offer a fixed fee of €25m (£21.5m) in addition to bonuses for Dragusin, but Genoa are said to have slapped a €35m (£30.1m) price tag on the head of the defender.
Despite Bayern's interest, Plettenberg adds that Tottenham and Napoli are still the most "concrete" options for the former Juventus defender, whose contract with Genoa runs for another three-and-a-half years, and a separate report from the Daily Mail claims that he is aiming to complete a switch to North London this week.
Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou admitted before the start of the window that his side were in desperate need of a centre-back, having often been forced to field full-backs in the heart of defence in recent weeks due to injuries.
Micky van de Ven spent two months out of contention with a hamstring problem, and Cristian Romero has since entered the treatment room with a similar concern, which will keep him out for a number of weeks.
As a result, Postecoglou has often paired right-back Emerson Royal with left-back Ben Davies as an emergency central pairing, despite the presence of Eric Dier and 18-year-old summer signing Ashley Phillips.
The latter was not deemed ready for the step-up to Premier League football, though, and Tottenham announced on Monday that he had been loaned out to Championship side Plymouth Argyle for the rest of the season.
Meanwhile, Dier only has six months left to run on his contract and is said to have agreed terms over a possible transfer to Bayern, whose proposed signing of the Englishman would lessen their need to add Dragusin to their ranks too.
Tottenham have the right to demand a nominal fee for Dier's exit during the January transfer window, though, and no progress is said to have been made in talks between the two clubs.
Bayern coincidentally captured Kim Min-jae from rival Dragusin suitors Napoli in the summer, but the South Korea is currently away at the Asian Cup. body check tags ::
