Nobody would blame Tottenham Hotspur supporters if they had forgotten all about Pau Lopez.
Mauricio Pochettino signed the Spanish goalkeeper in the summer of 2017, on loan from Espanyol.
However, Lopez didn’t play a single minute of football across any competition for Spurs that year and returned to Spain with the most underwhelming loan spell possible.
But it turns out that the 27-year-old is quite a good goalkeeper after all.
The former Tottenham man is now on loan at Marseille in Ligue 1 and has just been nominated for Goalkeeper of the Season in this division.
Lopez is up against Walter Benitez, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Alban Lafont and Matz Sels.
Donnarumma, having won a Ligue 1 tltle under Pochettino at Paris Saint-Germain this season, might well be favourite to win the award.
But PSG have only conceded two goals fewer than Lopez at Marseille, despite a drastic difference in how much both defences cost, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if Lopez – on loan from Roma – did scoop the award.
Lopez was signed as competition for Hugo Lloris and it’s ironic that Tottenham still don’t have a good enough number two to beat the Frenchman to the gloves, with Pierluigi Gollini playing second fiddle this season, with Joe Hart being number two last term.
But despite not playing in North London, Lopez, who made seven Premier League 2 appearances with the Lilywhites’ reserves, is a good keeper and, at 27, he’s only going to get much better.
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