Premier League duo Newcastle United and Aston Villa have joined Tottenham Hotspur in pursuit of Sebastian Cacares with the Uruguay international emulating Virgil van Dijk’s famous achievement at Liverpool.
Remember when Virgil van Dijk went 65 games without a single opposition player managing to dribble past him? Well, although the sample size is far smaller, Sebastian Caceres can lay claim to a similarly impressive record across the Atlantic.
The Club America defender, linked frequently with a move to Tottenham Hotspur ahead of the January transfer window, has not been beaten in a one-v-one situation even once during the South American World Cup qualifiers (SofaScore via Record).
A statistic which becomes all the more eye-catching when you consider he has come up against the likes of Julian Alvarez, Lautaro Martinez, Gabriel Jesus, Vinicius Junior and, of course, the eight-time Ballon D’Or claiming, World Cup-winning Argentina captain Lionel Messi.
Sebastian Caceres shines Lionel Messi
Uruguay’s legendary head coach Marcelo Bielsa entrusted Caceres with man-marking duties when they faced Argentina last week, and the tough-tackling 24-year-old carried out his bosses instructions to the letter as Messi was rendered a frustrated spectator.
“(Bielsa) told us not to be afraid to follow him. That whoever was closest would make him uncomfortable,” Caceres tells ESPN, often vacating his centre-back position to chase Messi around the pitch like a particularly pesky shadow.
“In the first-half, Manu Ugarte did it. But when he got yellow card, we changed and, in the second-half, it was my turn to mark him. If he went too far from my zone I let him, but the priority was to follow him without fear.
“(Bielsa’s idea was) that there would be no free player left and, if Messi moved too far from the area, I would leave him and another teammate would take him.”
Tottenham face Newcastle and Aston Villa battle
Caceres’ performances at international level have not gone unnoticed. Tottenham, per reporter Fernando Esquivel on X, failed with an opening bid of £3 million recently, Club America holding out for around £7 million as Caceres enters the final 12 months of his contract.
According to The Telegraph, there is also interest from Aston Villa and a Newcastle United side still chasing a new right-sided centre-half.
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