Goran Pandev profile: 10 things you need to know about the Tottenham target

Tottenham are on the look out for another striker after Russian international Roman Pavlyuchenko annoyed manager Harry Redknapp by storming off down the tunnel when he was substituted against Manchester City at the weekend.

And Harry is reported to be looking at another eastern European , though one that has had his temperament and talents refined in Italy's Serie A.

Step forward Goran Pandev - the £15m-rated forward who could be the answer to Spurs fans' prayers.

Here are ten things you need to know about the Macedonian hitman.

1) Born in Strumica, eastern Macedonia, in July 1983, as a youngster Pandev learned his football at his local club FK Belasica, who also produced internationals Robert and Goran Popov, who are both playing abroad in Europe.

2) When only 18, Pandev was snapped up by Inter Milan, though he was farmed out to C1 side Spezia Calcio and then top-table strugglers AC Ancona before he was shipped on to Lazio in January 2004, as a make-weight in a deal that saw Serbia's Dejan Stankovic go the other way.

3) Behind Darko Pancev, who played 19 games for Inter in the mid 1990s (Macedonia only gained independence in 1994), Pandev was the second Macedonian to play in Serie A. And he began the 2004-05 season well, scoring Lazio's winner in the victory over Messina in their second game.

4) That same season he also scored this Roberto Baggio-esque goal against Juventus, slaloming round the challenges of Fabio Cannavaro, Lilian Thuram and Gianluca Zambrotta, before firing past Gianluigi Buffon:

5) In all he made 29 appearances in that first season and netted three goals. The next season new manager Delio Rossi pioneered a strike force that saw Pandev team up with Italian international Tommaso Rocchi - and they proved impressive as a deadly duo.

6) In 2006 Lazio bought out all of Pandev's contract from Udinese, who had bought from Inter a £4m share. Then, in the 2007-08 season, he caused some of Europe's biggest teams to sit up and take note when he twice equalised against Real Madrid in the Champions League preliminary stages. Check it out here (and please forgive the over-enthusiastic Italian commentary):

7) In all he has played 134 times for Lazio, scored 51 goals - and hit his first Serie A hat-trick this January against Reggina. He has vowed to stay in Rome at least until his contract expires, in the summer of 2010. Aside from Spurs, Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Chelsea have all been reported to have been interested in securing the 25-year-old's services.

8) For his country he has netted 15 goals in 44 games - only two behind record-holder Gjorgji Hristov, the former Barnsley forward - remember him? Pandev's last competitive goal for Macedonia came against Holland in a World Cup qualifier last October, but his country lost 2-1 in Skopje.

9) In March Pandev was awarded Macedonia's Medal for Service by President Branko Crvenkovski, "in acknowledgement of his sporting achievements and his contribution to developing and popularizing sport in Macedonia as well as promoting the country abroad".

10) He is very interested in new technology, apparently, and has a number of Facebook groups , a MySpace page (accompanied by the delightful tune of Superman by Bosnian singing legend Dino Merlin) and even his own website . He also always wears the No19 shirt - not sure why - but at present no one occupies the Spurs No19 shirt, and that could prove a clincher for the Macedonian maestro.

FREE £25 BET WITH BETFAIR

There's a grand up for grabs on our new soccer 7 game Click Here to play now

Follow every Premier League game live with our brilliant Match Tracker

Get player videos and transfer news round-ups on the Football Spy blog .