Portsmouth Football Club have offered Sylvain Distin a new contract.

The French defender is a major target for Sunderland, who are willing to pay around £4million to take him to the Stadium of Light before the end of the month.

Distin has just one more year remaining on his deal at Pompey, but chief executive Peter Storrie has revealed the club are fighting hard to keep him at Fratton Park.

“The situation with Sylvain is very clear, if I wanted to sell him I could have done it two or three times – but I flatly turned him down,” he told The News.

"We have made Sylvain an offer for a two-year extension to his contract. I think he probably just wants to wait and see if we can bring a couple of players in, which we are trying to do at this moment in time.

"Then I hope he will sign a contract. We have turned down offers and will continue to turn down offers. He's been one of our best players for several seasons now and we want him to stay."