Dean Huijsen to Real Madrid: How Bournemouth defender became one of Europe’s most coveted.

Huijsen ranks highly in many different categories for Premier League defenders to play at least 1,000 minutes this season, per 90 minutes.

On top of that, in his 30 Premier League appearances, he has scored three important goals – a winner against Tottenham, opener against Manchester United and equaliser against Arsenal – all in wins.

Jordan Clark, BBC Radio Solent’s Bournemouth commentator, has been hugely impressed by the youngster.

“He looks like he’s a second ahead of the strikers,” he says. “He reads the game so well. He’s a brilliant ball player, playing it out from the back, and he’s defensively strong, physically solid.

“It’s tough to see any downsides to his game. He does the basic things well. If a player is under pressure you see modern-day defenders take risks and play it out from the back.

“But he’ll assess the situation quickly and if he feels the pass isn’t on, he’ll just put the ball out of play. It’s like an old-school defender; no risks, if in doubt put it out.”

Huijsen actually began the season in the starting XI before dropping to the bench for a few months before Senesi’s injury.

“He played the first game at Forest and I remember saying on commentary it was the first time we’d seen him properly, a 19-year-old, but he looked like he’d been playing in the Premier League for years.

“He had something about him physically, he dealt brilliantly with Chris Wood but the ball playing as well was impressive. He stood out that day. But then he had to wait for his opportunity.”

The CIES Football Observatory recently put Huijsen second in the world of 2024-25 signings whose values have risen, saying the Cherries could have made a £57.7m profit had he not had a release clause.

The only player above him was new Real Madrid team-mate Kylian Mbappe, who joined them on a free transfer from Paris St-Germain last year and is now worth, according to them, £153.6m.