Belgium midfielder Defour extends deal with Burnley

Clarets midfielder Steven Defour has extended his stay at Turf Moor.
Steven DefourSteven Defour
Steven Defour

The former Belgium international’s contract will now run to 2020 after the club took up the one-year option in their favour on his original deal, signed in 2016.

Defour was a then-record signing from Anderlecht at around £7.5m.

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The 30-year-old has made 49 appearances for the club, scoring three goals, and Sean Dyche said: “He has two years now. He’s staying for another two years until 2020.”

Defour’s representative Christian Pala said in February Defour would be prepared to talk about a new deal: “Steven is happy at Burnley, he had a good season until the injury, and if the club offers a new contract, and everyone can find an agreement, why not?

“He is going to be 30 in April, and probably has still got one big contract left before he ends his career, maybe in Belgium, so we’ll see what happens.

“He would like to finish his career where it all started at Mechelen, but that depends if the clubs is still playing in the first league in Belgium, so there are still some things to be seen in the next three or four years.

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“Steven is happy, but this will probably be his last big contract so everything has to fit.

“I don’t think it will be difficult if everybody understands which way we want to go, and the club wants to go, and how we feel each other and how we think about it.

“But before he came, he chose Burnley to play at the highest level, rather than go for money. At his age, he refused more than double the money, which shows he is determined to play at the biggest level.”

Defour has been out of action since the end of January after knee surgery, and further complications in pre-season, but he is close to a return, as Dyche added: “Steven is doing really well, he’s been fit for a week and training with us every day.

”He’s looking and feeling well, he’ll start a games programme next week, he’ll need a couple of games to build into it and build into a 90 minutes.

”He’s midway through a pre-season if you like.”