Burnley have announced the signing of the Belgium midfielder Steven Defour from Anderlecht for £7.5m.
The 28-year-old has agreed a three-year deal and becomes the Clarets’ fourth signing of the summer.
Born in Mechelen, Defour has been capped 46 times for Belgium and won the league title twice with Standard Liège. He also won the Portuguese title twice with Porto before returning to Belgium with Anderlecht.
He told the Burnley website: “I hope I can bring my experience to the team and the club to stay in the Premier League.
“I’m looking forward to every game. The atmosphere around the league is fantastic and everyone across the world has seen the Premier League, so I am very proud to be a part of that. It is a new challenge for me, but I like that.”
Defour added: “It has been a long few weeks, but I am very happy to be here. When I knew that Burnley was interested, I took some time to look into the club and I saw some interesting stuff.
“I also called a friend of mine who plays at Brentford and he told me Burnley was the best team in the Championship and that it would be a really good choice for me.”
Defour joins the Charlton pair Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Nick Pope and Liverpool’s on-loan full-back Jon Flanagan as Burnley’s only signings this summer.
The Burnley manager Sean Dyche added: “Steven was a target of ours and it’s been a hard deal to do, but we got there in the end.
“He’s a good player with a depth of experience at international level and also Champions League.
“Steven is new to the Premier League but has a real thirst and desire to be successful in this campaign.”
