Liverpool and Barcelona are ahead of their European rivals in the transfer battle for the central defender that could be their next Virgil van Dijk

Liverpool have joined four other major European clubs in the battle to sign Brighton star Luka Vuskovic. The 19-year-old defender has already made a strong impression after just eight Premier League appearances having only joined the Seagulls from Tottenham this past summer in a £50million deal.

Vuskovic has already put in some solid displays under Fabian Hurzeler against the likes of Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Sunderland and Aston Villa with clean sheets kept in all of those league victories.

At Anfield on Saturday, however, it was the displays of Jeremy Jacquet and Ronald Araujo that caught the eye with the defensive duo as new arrivals for this season. Next to the former is 35-year-old Virgil van Dijk which certainly explains why Liverpool may be looking at signing Vuskovic despite bringing in two centre-backs in the last few months.

According to Teamtalk, Liverpool are the latest club to show a 'serious interest' in the Croatia international alongside Real Madrid and Barcelona. The latter have been linked for some time while Liverpool and Real are fairly new admirers that have ramped up their efforts recently.

Chelsea and Bayern Munich have also been tracking his progress over the last few seasons. The report adds Vuskovic is open to a potential move to the Allianz Arena having already proven his worth in the Bundesliga when on-loan at Hamburg last season.

Having only joined Brighton ahead of the current campaign, it is unlikely any formal moves will be made in January with interested parties having to wait until the summer.

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Brighton have no immediate plans to sell and are not under any pressure to do so with Vuskovic featuring regularly and under contract at Amex Stadium until 2031.

However, all of Liverpool, Bayern, Barca, Real and Chelsea being interested suggests he will not be seeing out that five-year deal.

That inevitable transfer battle could also include Tottenham as his former club including a matching rights clause in the deal with Brighton. That gives them the opportunity to bring him back to the club by paying a fee accepted by Brighton from a different team.

Alternatively, the Lilywhites can accept his move to a major European heavyweight and thus receive 20 per cent of any profit made.

For example, if he were to join Liverpool for £100m, Tottenham would receive £10m with that figure a fifth of £50m, which is the difference between his hypothetical value in this scenario and what Spurs sold him for.

They have already made a significant profit on the teenager having signed him from Hadjuk Split for just £12m. Spurs almost immediately gave back the £50m from Brighton for Vuskovic by signing Jan Paul van Hecke.