Vedran Corluka Bio Send To Friend  

Tottenham snapped up one of Croatian football's best prospects in adding this tall and versatile defender to their squad in the summer of 2008.

Off the conveyor belt of talent that is Dinamo Zagreb, Corluka can play at centre-back or right-back, even playing as a right wing-back and had come to English football with Machester City in 2007.

Having played for Croatia's Under-21 side, he was given his full international debut in a friendly with Italy in August 2006, going on to play in the rest of his country's matches throughout 2006/7.

Corluka cost City around £8million on a five year contract and was one of Sven Goran Eriksson's first signings - one of those which had some commenting 'who?'. But they weren't to be doing that for long as Corluka proved himself to be a quality performer, usually in the right-back role.

Comfortable at the back, Corluka also showed a willingness to bomb forward and was often involved in attacking situations. He possess a decent cross in support of the forward line.

The defender made his City debut in a 2-0 win at West Ham United and went on to feature in all but three of City's Premier League games in 2007/08. He was also part of the Croatia side which sent England tumbling out of Euro 2008.

He was part of Croatia's side at Euro 2008, playing every match as they lost to Turkey on penalties in the quarter-finals.

Subject to interest from Tottenham after an impressive first season in the Premier League, a deal looked to have been agreed in August 2008 before it collapsed, only to be resurrected on the final day of the transfer window for an undisclosed fee.