Agent confirms Ferguson leads Defour hunt

Sport.co.uk understands that Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson is leading the race to sign Belgian international Steven Defour, however Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester City have been confirmed as monitoring the situation.

Defour, 22, won the Golden Shoe in 2008, the official award for the most valuable player in the Belgian league, however a broken leg in September 2009 kept the talented midfielder on the sidelines for much of the last campaign. United boss Ferguson even wrote to the player to commiserate over the leg break which ruled him out of much of last season's Champions League campaign promising to keep in touch with the youngsters progress.

Defour has been courted by the Premier League's elite for the last two years, however the player's representative Paul Stefani informed Sport.co.uk that Red Devils boss Ferguson is leading the pursuit of the player while Carlo Ancelotti, Roy Hodgson, and Roberto Mancini are keeping tabs on the situation.

The Belgian international who has 24 caps for his country is still recovering from the horrific injury with Defour unlikely to move until he regains full fitness from the leg break. Defour's agent Stefani explained the situation to Sport.co.uk in an exclusive interview:

"Ferguson is always interested in Steven (Defour) ever since he sent him the letter when he was struggling with injury. He is interested but we have to wait for an offer to be validated.

"At the moment he is not 100 per cent because of his long term injury, and now he has to work on recovering from this."

Stefani was then asked if Manchester City, Liverpool, and Chelsea were monitoring the player's situation:

"Yes, they are interested, but many clubs are interested, from Spain, Italy, and Germany. To say that tomorrow he will go to England is not right. There is always interest and every wants to play in the Premier League because it is a very big competition. But, I think we will have to wait until he is a 100 per cent fit, not 85 per cent."

This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club.