MLS outfit Vancouver Whitecaps have offered Fulham centre back Luc de Fougerolles a long-term contract in audacious attempt to lure the Canadian international away from Craven Cottage this summer, according to the Athletic.

The nineteen year-old, currently starring for Jesse Marsch’s side in the Gold Cup, met with Whitecaps representatives last week and is keeping his options open, according to Joshua Kloke. The Battersea-born defender’s current Fulham deal expires at the end of the month and the Premier League club have offered their academy graduate new terms that he is expected to sign.

de Fougerolles, enjoying his first taste of a major tournament and regular football again after eight months out with an untimely knee injury, tells the Athletic that he wants to stay with the Whites but believes he is ready for first-team football.

“It’s obviously not fully my decision to make. If Fulham want me around, I’ll gladly stay and be around the team. But a loan would be amazing. Just to play 40 professional games, I feel like that’s part of the game that maybe I’m missing with Under-21s. It’s less competitive. So if I were to go to a League One or a Championship team, I think every game would be competitive and that experience would really put me on a good start.”

Fulham were exploring a domestic loan last season before de Fougerolles suffered the first serious injury of his burgeoning career and are understand to be keen to explore that market once more, with their intelligent defender fully aware that regular game time will help him hold onto a spot in Marsch’s plans ahead of next summer’s World Cup.