One of the rising young centre backs in Europe, Aleksandar Dragovic, is making his way towards the Premier League, as Manchester United are looking into the option of signing the 22-year old Austrian from FC Basel.

Dragovic, born in Austria to  ethnic Serbian parents from Grocka, a neighborhood in Belgrade and huge fan of Red Star Belgrade, has been playing for Basel since arriving from Austria Wien in 2011. After waiting to get called up for the Serbian national team and being disappointed, he started playing for Austria, already appearing 14 times since 2009 for the national side.

He has stated more than once that his dream is to play in England and more than that, follow in the footsteps of his idol Nemanja Vidic, which means not just becoming one of the best central defenders in the world, but also playing for Manchester United.

Vidic’s status in unclear, while Rio Ferdinand is going to stay on for another season, although everyone is quite sure that he isn’t going to be a constant figure with the first team, as his ability and durability aren’t to be counted on. There are Jonny Evans, who seems to be United’s top CB at the moment, and also Phil Jones (used more a little higher up the field) and Chris Smalling (never healthy), but United probably need another centre back.

So there are more expensive and famous options they’ve been thinking about, but Dragovic, who until not too long ago has been linked to Everton before David Moyes left, suddenly seems like a close-to-natural fit for United, also impressing against them in the Champions League in 2011 when the two teams met during the group stage, as United failed to beat Basel and to qualify from the group.

Dragovic continued his excellent form this season, following his Swiss defender of the year award from last season by being voted into the Europa League group stage team in December 2012. He has appeared 48 times for Basel this season, scoring 4 goals.