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Harry Kane leads tributes to Mousa Dembele as midfielder joins Chinese side

  /  autty

Harry Kane has paid tribute to Mousa Dembele after the midfielder left Tottenham to join Chinese Super League side Guangzhou R&F.

The Belgium international was presented as a Guangzhou R&F player on Thursday afternoon after completing his £11million move from Tottenham.

Kane took to Twitter to wish his former team-mate well and heap praise for his efforts during his seven-year spell at the club.

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He wrote on Twitter: 'Good luck in your new chapter. Thanks for everything you've done for the club.'

Tottenham also paid tribute by releasing a montage of Dembele's best moments in a Spurs shirt on their social media accounts.

Jan Vertonghen was saddened by the midfielder's departure, having had a close relationship with his compatriot and insisted he was one of the best players in the Premier League.

'Oh very, very emotional,' Vertonghen told the club's website. 'We see a great player go and for me a great friend. For other people it's "I don't know when I will see you again" but I know we've got enough things in common to keep in touch.

'This is the world of football. We signed in the same window and if you would've said then that were were going to stay here and get six and a half to seven years together...you know?

'You never know how these things go, but we had seven years and the national team and so many moments together. We knew the time was coming, but it's been good.

'You have to ask the players who have played against Mousa or with Mousa to get the appreciation he deserves. Sometimes it made me angry a bit, that people talked about the best midfielders in the Premier League and didn't name Mousa, but I feel like he got that appreciation over the last two years.'

He has only appeared 13 times this season, with the likes of Harry Winks and Moussa Sissoko earning more playing time.

Dembele has also not played since suffering an injury and being substituted after just seven minutes in their victory at Wolves on November 3.

The midfielder has made 82 appearances for Belgium during a 12-year international career, and has featured at the 2014 and 2018 World Cups, as well as Euro 2016.

The midfielder said in an interview shown on Spurs' Twitter account: 'I've always had a good experience here. I go away with an unbelievable feeling and with a certain love for the club.

'You always want this, because you have a long period at a club, you have a lot of love for the club but sometimes you separate in a bad way and I don't feel that way.'