Jan Vertonghen has come up against some of the best players in the world such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez but Adama Traore gave him his toughest match.
The Wolves star made the former Tottenham man feel ‘helpless’ during a Premier League match in December 2019 and now manager Antonio Conte wants him to do the same to other defences.
Even though Spurs won the match 2-1 with the Belgium defender scoring an injury time winner, Vertonghen claimed ‘he had a very bad game’ no thanks to Traore.
“This is funny because I was a centre-back for 15 years,” he told an Instagram Live chat in May 2020 shortly before he left Spurs for Benfica.
“I have come across the best players, Messi, Ronaldo, Suarez and [Sergio] Aguero. I have played against all of them.
“But the one where I struggled the most for 90 minutes, like non-stop 90 minutes, is when I played left-back against Wolves and Traore.
“I should name Suarez or Aguero. Obviously, they were good and sometimes better than me.
“But where I struggled for 90 minutes was against Wolves. It was crazy. I felt helpless.
“Then, in the end, I scored a winner, and everyone was like ‘ooh, you had a great game’. I had a very bad game.”
That game epitomised what Traore is all about and is why Tottenham are now so keen on bringing him to north London.
talkSPORT sources understand Tottenham are set to make a formal £20m offer for him as Conte looks to shape his squad and try and finish in the top four of the Premier League.
“Antonio Conte interestingly plans to use him as a wing-back much like he did with Victor Moses when Chelsea won the league title,” talkSPORT’s football correspondent Alex Crook explained.
Traore, 25, came through the Barcelona academy and has played at Aston Villa and Middlesbrough in England, while he has been a Wolves player since 2018.
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