Thursday, 13th December, 2012
Hamburg have admitted that they are well aware Arsenal and Manchester United are keen on their promising young defender Jonathan Tah – but will do all they can to keep him out of their clutches.
The 16-year-old is making rapid progress at the northern German club and has established himself as a fixture in Germany’s Under-17 side.
This season Tah has turned out for Hamburg’s Under-19s eleven times, while also playing in the German Junior Cup.
It is not expected to be long however before Tah, who has Ivorian roots, makes the leap into Thorsten Fink’s senior squad as a fully fledged professional footballer, something Hamburg junior director Bastian Reinhardt expects to happen very soon, with the defender being joined by midfielder Levin Oztunali.
"We are confident that they will make the leap to being professionals and do it quickly", Reinhardt told the Hamburger Morgenpost.
The director also confirmed that the Bundesliga giants are not ignorant to interest in Tah from Arsenal and Manchester United.
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"The interest is known to us", he admitted.
"We take it seriously and in fact we are working very seriously to ensure that they [Tah and Oztunali] stay in Hamburg."
Tah is under contract with Hamburg until 2014, but the German side will want to extend that as soon as it is practicable.
Hamburg have risen up the Bundesliga standings this season and currently sit seventh, only three points behind third-placed Borussia Dortmund, the reigning champions.
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