Beslija to sign today as Hearts eye more

MIRSAD Beslija will finally be unveiled as a Hearts player this afternoon after weeks of painstaking negotiations. The Edinburgh club, currently second in the SPL, also hope to have completed the signings of several other players before the transfer window closes at midnight.

Racing Genk, the team with whom he has spent the past five seasons, said yesterday that the fee for the Bosnian midfielder was £850,000 - a record for Hearts, surpassing the £750,000 paid to Rangers for Derek Ferguson 16 years ago.

"I will travel to Edinburgh in the morning [Tuesday] and should have my first training session there in the afternoon," Beslija said. "Everything seems to have finally been agreed."

Beslija, who rejected a loan move to Sunderland in favour of joining Graham Rix's team, said his farewells to Genk on Sunday night in front of a crowd of 22,000. He was presented with a bouquet of flowers in recognition of his service to the Belgian club.

The transfer looked to have collapsed at one point earlier this month, when, after the clubs had agreed a fee, Vladimir Romanov, Hearts' owner, refused to pay additional money to four people claiming to represent Beslija. An application for a work permit for the 26-year-old was turned down at first, but an appeal was successful on Friday. Capped 39 times by Bosnia, Beslija had 18 months to run on his contract with Genk. The highlight of his time there was winning the league in 2002.

Bruno Aguiar, the midfielder who was recently freed by Benfica, is also expected to be confirmed as a Hearts player today. He could be joined at Tynecastle by Jose Goncalves, the FC Thun left-back, and Juho Makela, a striker from HJK Helsinki.

Taken from the Scotsman