Romano: Luka Vuskovic close to Belgium loan with Westerlo

One of the most exciting signings of last summer’s transfer window isn’t technically even a Tottenham Hotspur player. Spurs reached an agreement with Hajduk Split last September for the signing of then-16-year-old Croatian central defender Luka Vuskovic, when he turns 18

Luka spent this past season on loan in Poland at Radomiak Radom where he was a regular starter in defense, scoring three goals for a club that narrowly escaped relegation. Now, according to Fabrizio Romano, Split is close to an agreement to send Vuskovic out on loan again for this coming season, this time to the Belgian Jupiler League with Westerlo.

This would be a good move for several reasons. First, it recognizes both Vuskovic’s already excellent talent at 17 and also his progression as a player — Belgium isn’t top European competition, but it’s a real league with good teams that regularly qualify for European competition. Westerlo is a tiny team in a small town that finished 11th in a 16-team league last season, but Vuskovic isn’t likely to get much playing time at a club like Genk, Anderlecht or Union Saint-Gilloise. Belgium watchers on Twitter are bullish that Vuskovic can adapt and start in what will be a big step up in competition level next season.

The other reason a move to Belgium is good for Luka is that the Jupiler Pro League is a Band 2 European league — since Luka is nowhere close to the Croatian national team, he needs to earn 15 “points” through playing at a higher competition to earn a work permit in the UK. It’s a complicated system, but suffice it to say playing in Belgium this season gives him a clearer path to eventually moving to the UK to play with Tottenham next season. While Luka is still a Split player, you have to think that Tottenham had some major input as to his loan destination this coming season, and maybe even helped to grease the wheels to get him in a more favorable location.

It might be a couple of seasons before we see Vuskovic playing any minutes at all at Spurs, but the fact that he’s a future Tottenham player indicates that he has an enormous potential. This also gives me a reason to pay attention to the Belgian league again, and that’s kinda nice.