There is no doubt that Tottenham Hotspur have one of the most talented defenses in world football. It all starts with the new captain, Cristian Romero, who is a World Cup and Copa America winner, in addition to being the literal best player at the Europa League tournament that Spurs won last season.
Next to him, Micky van de Ven is another super-athlete and nearly as good, but because the Dutch national team is nowhere near Argentina's - and he gets overshadowed by Virgil van Dijk - he's maddeningly underrated.
And speaking of underrated, third center back Kevin Danso was once viewed as the best player in all of Ligue 1 for Cinderella side Lens, and whenever he's played for Tottenham, he has impressed.
Romero has been tremendous again for Spurs to start the 2025/26 season, and Van de Ven is also having an excellent beginning to Thomas Frank's first campaign at the club. But neither of them have been the best center back on the Tottenham books this season.
Only Federico Dimarco is better among 'defenders'
No, that honor belongs to Hamburg standout Luka Vuskovic, who is on loan from Spurs in order to get regularly playing time every week. Well, Vuskovic is balling so hard that if he were to be a Spurs player right now, he'd be a starter on merit, because, statistically, he has been the best center back in European football thus far.
That's right. Through just four starts, the 18-year-old Vuskovic has been the highest-rated center back by WhoScored this season and the 10th-highest rated player overall, which is absolutely insane when you consider Hamburg are a pretty talent-low team that just came back to the Bundesliga after years of being demoted. Even wilder, the only defender rated higher than Vuskovic is Federico Dimarco of Inter Milan by a margin of 7.77 to 7.72 - and Dimarco isn't really even a defender but rather a wing back.
What Vuskovic is doing at the age of 18 is just jaw-dropping. The Croatian international is averaging 7.3 aerial duels won and 12.3 clearances per game with more than three times as many interceptions per game as dribbles allowed. He barely has to make a tackle, his marking is already so good.
The fact that Vuskovic is lapping the competition at center back as a teenager is wild, and while the Premier League is seen as being more difficult than the Bundesliga, that may not be the case for center backs. There is more ground to cover defensively, and on a bad team like Hamburg, Vuskovic doesn't have other great players to lean on like Romero and Van de Ven can lean on each other.