REPORT: Dynamo Kyiv rejected £25m Spurs bid for Illya Zabarnyi

Here’s another one for your bummer list of Things that Aren’t Happening Today™ — according to Zorya Londonsk, “the #1 source for Ukrainian football in English,” Dynamo Kyiv rejected a whopping £25m bid for newly-20-year old Ukrainian international and central defender Illya Zabarnyi.

Zabarnyi’s still basically a kid, but he has 22 caps for the Ukrainian national team and is considered one of the better young defensive talents in Europe. He’s also coming off of two seasons as a regular starter at Dynamo, so this kind of a bummer. He’s a right footed, right sided central defender and while he might not have been slotted right into the starting XI at Spurs this season, he’d be ripe for a loan-back and a re-evaluation next summer.

Ukrainian football is... well, you know the situation over there. For obvious reasons, a lot of Ukrainian clubs are demanding a sizable chunk of transfer fees up front. I don’t know whether that was a factor in their decision to reject a £25m bid for Zabarnyi, but that’s a pretty good fee for a kid who’s almost certainly ready for a step up in competition level.

Oh well.