{"id":654125,"date":"2025-04-28T10:26:32","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T14:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=654125"},"modified":"2025-04-28T16:43:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T20:43:13","slug":"brigthton-star-defender-linked-with-top-premier-league-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/04\/28\/brigthton-star-defender-linked-with-top-premier-league-club\/","title":{"rendered":"Brighton Star Defender Linked With Top Premier League Club"},"content":{"rendered":"

It<\/span> is going to <\/span>be<\/span> a busy summer transfer window <\/span>for Brighton<\/span>.<\/span> After losing ground on the teams above them in the race for European football, many of their players will be linked away from the Seagulls. One of these players is Brighton star defender Jan Paul van Hecke. He has caught the eye <\/span>of the likes<\/span> of Newcastle United and Bayer Leverkusen.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Newcastle In The Race For Brighton Defender Jan Paul Van Hecke<\/span><\/h2>\r\n

Which Teams Hold Interest?<\/span><\/h3>\r\n

TBR Football chief correspondent Graeme Bailey <\/span>reported<\/span><\/a> that Newcastle were one of the several clubs that are keeping close tabs on Van Hecke. The Magpies are one of many top English teams who are keeping an eye on him. With Newcastle looking good for a Champions League place, Eddie Howe is looking to bolster his options at the back.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Read More: <\/span><\/strong>Who Should Partner Carlos Baleba in Brighton Midfield<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Outside of England, Leverkusen <\/span>have<\/span> also held an interest in the Dutch defender.<\/span> Jonathan Tah will <\/span>leave<\/span><\/a> the German outfit at the end of the season.\u00a0 <\/span>With European football unlikely to come, Van Hecke may be assessing his options. As a result, <\/span>a move away from Sussex to one of these top teams could be the right <\/span>way to go<\/span> for the 24-year-old.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

What Will Van Hecke Bring?<\/span><\/h3>\r\n

The centre-back has been a key part of Brighton’s team this season. <\/span>He has played 30 league games this term, <\/span>with his availability coming in key<\/span> due to Brighton’s defensive injuries. He has impressed at the highest level, with <\/span>the likes of <\/span>Pep Guardiola<\/span><\/a> having praised<\/span> him.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Read More: <\/span><\/strong>Brighton Looking At Possibility Of Losing Star Winger<\/a><\/p>\r\n

His composure and calmness on the ball help Brighton keep the ball and start attacks. Defensively, he is very hard to get by and normally comes out on top in ground and aerial duels.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Former Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi had high praise for the star defender, <\/span>as he said<\/span><\/a>: “I think you are one of the best central defenders in the Premier League at the moment.”Brighton has <\/span>a lot of<\/span> talented young players. <\/span>Not<\/span> all of these players are read<\/span>y\/h<\/span>ave the experience to start for the first team, <\/span>with it being<\/span> very competitive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is going to be a busy summer transfer window for Brighton. After losing ground on the teams above them in the race for European football, many of their players will be linked away from the Seagulls. One of these players is Brighton star defender Jan Paul van Hecke. He has caught the eye of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5505,"featured_media":653592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1265,7188],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-654125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premier-league","category-brighton-and-hove-albion","category-rumours"],"modified_by":"Declan Wiseman, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5505"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654125"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654208,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654125\/revisions\/654208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}