Tottenham Hotspur defender Japhet Tanganga has finally scored the first senior goal of his career with the Premier League loanee netting after just five minutes of Millwall’s Championship clash with Southampton.
The last time the 24-year-old defender found the net at any level, Tottenham Hotspur’s reserves were taking on Real Madrid in the UEFA Youth League back in 2017/18.
You would have got very long odds, then, on Japhet Tanganga being the man who opened the scoring during Millwall’s home clash with promotion-chasing Southampton on Saturday afternoon. Profiting from a questionable piece of goalkeeping from Saints glovesman Gavin Bazunu, Tanganga forced home from a set-piece with just five minutes on the clock.
Thus, ending a long wait for a first-ever strike in senior football, this coming in his 56th appearance at senior level.
Tottenham Hotspur man finally scores his first ever goal
Tanganga, the Hackney-born former England under-21 international, is still technically a Tottenham player. Whether he ever represents the London giants again, however, remains to be seen.
Tanganga, who was once a regular feature in the Spurs team under Jose Mourinho and (briefly) Nuno Espirito Santo, has just over 12 months left on his contract.
“I’ve had my fair share of injuries, or times where I’ve not been playing in my career,” Tanganga, who did not make a single Bundesliga appearance on loan at Augsburg in the first half of the current campaign, told Sky Sports earlier in February.
“But the reason you become a footballer is to play. You love the game, and that’s so important to me. For my fitness and for myself.”
Defender fires Millwall ahead vs Southampton
From the glamour of representing the likes of Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho, Tanganga now finds himself in the reeds and the nettles of the Championship. A Millwall side who re-hired club legend Neil Harris a few days ago after the sacking of Joe Edwards are very much in a survival battle.
“Being at the age I was working under the top managers I did was surely every young player’s dream,” Tanganga added.
“There was Conte, (Mauricio) Pochettino, Mourinho and Nuno. All managers who have done well in the game, so to be able to learn off of them from such a young age was the best thing I could have asked for.”
Tanganga is now doing his level best to ensure that life under his latest head coach – Harris – starts with a win.
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