Arsenal join Tottenham and Stoke in the race for England Under-21 defender Eric Dier
ENGLAND UNDER-21 defender Eric Dier has emerged as a target for Arsenal, Tottenham and Stoke City.
Reports in Portugal suggest that the Premier League trio are interested in bringing the Sporting Lisbon player back to England.
Dier broke into Gareth Southgate's Young Lions squad this season after some impressive performances in Portugal.
And that has alerted Arsenal, Tottenham and Stoke to the possibility of a bargain - with Andre Villas-Boas also thought to be interested in taking Dier to Zenit Saint Petersburg.
Dier was born in England but emigrated to Portugal with his mother as a ten-year-old and signed professional terms with Sporting in 2010 despite interest from Manchester United.
Initially 50 per cent of Dier's sporting rights were owned by a company called Quality Football Ireland Limited, but Sporting bought them out in 2012.
Sporting spent the early part of 2011 on loan with Everton with the Portugese club seeing the move as an opportunity to accelerate the youngster's development even though he played no first-team games for the Toffees.
Dier remains under contract at Sporting for a further two seasons and it will now be down to Spurs, the Gunners and the Potters to negotiate a price tag for the 20-year-old if they want to add the player before the start of next season.
http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football ... -Eric-Dier
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