Steven Defour: Burnley sign Belgium midfielder from Anderlecht
Last updated on .From the section Football
Burnley have signed Belgium midfielder Steven Defour from Anderlecht for a club-record £8m.
The 28-year-old has signed a three-year deal with the newly promoted Clarets.
Defour has been capped 46 times for Belgium and appeared at the 2014 World Cup, but he missed out on a place in the Euro 2016 squad.
"I hope I can bring my experience to the team and the club to stay in the Premier League," Defour said. "It's a new challenge for me, but I like that."
Defour won the Portuguese league twice with Porto and also won the Belgian league title twice during his time at Standard Liege.
He has been a summer-long target for the Clarets and added: "It has been a long few weeks, but I am very happy to be here.
"When I knew that Burnley was interested, I took some time to look into the club and I saw some interesting stuff.
"I also called a friend of mine who plays at Brentford and he told me Burnley was the best team in the Championship and that it would be a really good choice for me."
Clarets boss Sean Dyche said: "Steven was a target of ours and it's been a hard deal to do, but we got there in the end."
Everton had a £9m bid for Defour rejected by Liege in 2011 and Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson wrote to him wishing him a speedy recovery after he broke his foot five years ago, when he was a reported transfer target for the Red Devils.
