Tottenham Hotspur is a club, as currently constructed, that is built for the future. Technical Director Johan Lange spent the past summer identifying and acquiring a host of young talent that, with luck, will develop into the next great Spurs first team players. And according to one list, they’ve done a pretty important job in finding those young talents.
Each year, Goal.com releases their NXGN list of what they consider the top 50 young players (aka “wonder-kids”) in world football. These are young players, usually teenagers, who have impressed for their clubs at a young age and are poised to potentially break out as future first team players. If you’re a Football Manager guy, this is a list of young players you might want to target for your teams. If you’re just a “youf-watcher” it’s also extremely interesting and possibly a glimpse of who might be the next stars in world football before they’re stars.
Tottenham Hotspur have five players on this list:
- Yang Min-hyeok — #43
- Luka Vuskovic — #26
- Mikey Moore — #22
- Lucas Bergvall — #16
- Archie Gray — #13
To no one’s surprise, Barcelona’s young superstar Lamine Yamal heads up the list, but there are also names on it that Spurs have been linked to in current and past transfer windows, including Southampton’s Tyler Dibling, Brighton’s Stefanos Tzimas, and Olympiacos’ Charalampos Kostoulas.
Now, Spurs having five players on this list doesn’t mean that every one of them are going to end up as world-beaters. It only takes a quick google to find past versions of this list that include names that completely flamed out or plateaued under the top level of the game. That’s pretty par for the course when it comes to youth development — it’s a crap-shoot and excellence at youth football doesn’t always directly translate to excellence at senior level.
But holy smokes, it sure is nice to be recognized, isn’t it? Tottenham having five young players on that list is further reinforcement that Spurs are looking to build the NEXT great Tottenham squad even as they continue to transition and improve the current squad. And there’s many, many reasons to be excited about every one of those five players.
