Ange has found a "mind-blowing" star at Spurs who could be the next Defoe

Tottenham Hotspur have been blessed with some sensational goalscorers over the years.

The likes of Harry Kane and Son Heung-min helped to shape the Premier League in their pomp, and while he’s not quite on their level, Dominic Solanke looks like he could be a reliable source of goals in the years to come.

Moreover, the North Londoners have had their fair share of incredibly underrated strikers pull on the shirt, from Robbie Keane and Peter Crouch to the exceptional Jermaine Defoe.

In fact, the latter might just be one of the most underappreciated forwards in Premier League history, and it looks as if Ange Postecoglou may have his own version of the Englishman in his squad today.

Defoe’s Spurs career

Tottenham signed Defoe from West Ham United for just £7m, including add-ons, in February 2004, with then-acting manager David Pleat waxing lyrical about the then-21-year-old, describing him as “exceptional”.

The Englishman would finish his first campaign in North London with seven goals in 15 league appearances.

Over the next four years, he would amass a brilliant haul of 64 goals and seven assists in 177 games across all competitions when he made a shock move to Portsmouth in January 2009.

In a 2020 interview with Football FanCast, the prolific forward revealed that it was a falling out with then-boss Juande Ramos which forced him to leave the club, but fortunately for Levy and Co, he was back again just a year later for £15m when Harry Redknapp took charge of the club.

The Beckton-born dynamo spent the next five years in N17 before finally leaving for good in February 2014 to join MLS side Toronto FC.

However, after spending just 11 months with the Canadian outfit, he’d return to Britain and spend time playing for Sunderland, Rangers, and Bournemouth before retiring in March 2022 at 39 years old.

In all, Defoe made 363 appearances for Tottenham, totalling 22989 minutes, in which he scored a total of 143 goals and provided 29 assists, which comes out to a brilliant average of a goal involvement every 2.11 games, or every 133.65 minutes.

He might not have been the most celebrated centre-forward of his era, but he was an undeniably effective one, and now it looks like the club could have a new version of him in the squad.

Spurs’ new Defoe

So, while Solanke is now Spurs’ starting number nine and could be for some time, he is obviously nothing like Defoe.

However, Mathys Tel, on the other hand, is and could become the club’s new version of the English striker should they activate the £45m option to buy in his loan deal in the summer.

Before the pitchforks come out, there are a couple of reasons why the Frenchman could develop in a similar way to the former Lilywhites ace, and the first is his physical attributes.

Like the 57-capped international, the Bayern Munich loanee is quite diminutive, and while that certainly has some drawbacks in a league as physical as the Premier League, it also has its benefits.

For example, the Sarcelles-born phenom has already shown himself to possess a healthy amount of pace and athleticism, which, as he gets more and more used to playing in Postecoglou’s system, could help him get past opposition defences in a way akin to Defoe in the past.

The second reason is that while he’s struggled to find the back of the net this term, the “mind-blowing” forward, as dubbed by talent scout Jacek Kulig, was simply sensational last year and showed that he can be an incredibly efficient attacker.

In 41 first-team appearances, totalling just 1406 minutes, he scored ten goals and provided six assists, which comes out to an average of a goal involvement every 2.56 games, or more impressively, every 87.87 minutes.

Ultimately, it might be an early call that could backfire down the line, but based on his form last season and physical characteristics, Tel could very much be Spurs’ new Defoe.

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