Director reacts to claim Pochettino has called Mateta’s agent to join Spurs

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Tottenham Hotspur have again been linked with Jean-Philippe Mateta.

Mainz sporting director Rouven Schroeder has told Main-Spitze that there has been no contact with Southampton or Tottenham about a move involving Jean-Philippe Mateta.

New claims in German magazine Sport-BILD, as relayed by 90Min, suggested that Southampton and Tottenham want Mateta, with Mauricio Pochettino even personally calling the striker’s agent Pierre-Henri Bovis to convince him to join Spurs.

Mateta, 22, has been a Tottenham target before. In 2016, Spurs wanted to sign him from Lyon but one of his representatives, Franck Belhassen, told Foot Mercato that Mateta snubbed them as he didn’t want to leave France.

Just two years later, Mateta did head abroad, joining Mainz in a club-record deal, and hit 14 goals in his first Bundesliga campaign before signing a new four-year deal this past summer.

That new deal leaves Mainz well-protected against that mounting interest, but the Frenchman is attracting interest even though he hasn’t even even played a game this season due to a knee injury.

A powerhouse striker standing at 6ft 4in tall with an impressive turn of pace, Mateta is a superb target man, and with the Daily Mail claiming in August that Pochettino is concerned by the lack of a target man at Tottenham, Mateta makes sense.

However, Mainz sporting director Schroeder has claimed that has been no contact with either Southampton or Tottenham about a deal, and believes Mateta has already shown he’s happy with Mainz having signed a new deal just a few months ago.

Schroeder added that a January move is out of the question, believing there isn’t even any need to talk about the rumours that Mateta could be leaving as such a painful possibility does not exist.

“There is definitely no contact at the moment and no interest from England, and JP feels very well in Mainz and therefore extended his contract until 2023,” said Schroeder. “A theme will definitely not be the winter transfer period, so switching can be clearly ruled out, so there’s no point in talking about ominous supposed pain thresholds that did not exist and do not exist,” he added.