After the Premier League transfer window closed on August 8th, multiple reports in Belgium talked about Antwerp’s interest in signing Steven Defour.
The midfielder then had a year left on his contract at Burnley, but in the final week of the European transfer window, Sean Dyche’s side and the Belgian mutually agreed to terminate the contract.
This allowed the 31-year-old to join Antwerp on a free transfer and on Monday, he completed a switch to the Jupiler Pro League side. Defour signed a one year deal with his new club and is reportedly set to earn €2m in wages.
After sealing a switch to Antwerp, the former Porto man stressed the Clarets had initilally no plans of letting him leave Turf Moor this summer.
“I still regularly received phone calls from Luciano [D’Onofrio, Antwerp director of football]. It was usually very common of him to check on my situation,” the player was quoted as saying by Het Laatste Nieuws.
“Burnley never intended to let me go, but at the end of the transfer period we sat down together to find a solution,”
Defour struggled with injuries and fitness for the last 18 months, which is why his playing time with the Premier League side was restricted. However, that did not stop Antwerp from showing interest him from the start of this year.
“I have always said that I would finish my career at Mechelen. That’s not happened yet and I hope it won’t happen just yet. Antwerp acted the quickest and have always shown interest. Even in January,” he added.
