Spurs reportedly want to bring France U21 striker Mateta to the Premier League from Bundesliga outfit Mainz.
Three years ago, a little-known 19-year-old from Charleroi turned down a move to Tottenham Hotspur.
“Concerning Tottenham, it is quite clear that the player does not want to go abroad. He is 19, he does not want to skip steps,” the teenager’s agent, Franck Belhassen, told Foot Mercato in 2016.
“Few players have succeeded abroad at such a young age. He is a very reasonable boy and well looked after by his family. He knows what he wants to do.
“And Tottenham…as a club they probably have other fish to fry.”
So why are we bringing this up now, with two months to go until 2020 rolls in? Well, because that very same player is once again a Tottenham target.
According to The Mail, Jean-Phillipe Mateta is once again being lined up for a move to North London. The French striker is 22 years of age these days and, having proved his quality in one of Europe’s top five leagues, it seems that he is ready now to join a club with the status and stature of Tottenham.
Mateta plundered 14 goals in the Bundesliga for Mainz last season, three more than he managed for Charleroi in that breakthrough 2015/16 season that had Spurs sniffing around. Unlike Vincent Janssen, for whom one season in the Eredivisie provided a rather skewed image of his quality, and the ill-fitting Fernando Llorente, the France U21 international could finally offer some much-needed competition for talisman and captain Harry Kane.
Mateta is tall and rather gangly but lethal in front of goal and, at just 22, is nowhere near the finished article yet – the kind of raw talent that Pochettino loves to get his teeth into. And in stark contrast Janssen or Llorente, who became synonymous with fluffing simple chances, Mateta averages a goal every 6.8 shots, a record only marginally worse than Kane’s 2018/19 tally (6.0).
And with Tottenham hoping to thrive both domestically and on the continent, he would not be short of game time either. Kane has suffered from far too many injuries of late before being rushed back at the expense of his long-term well-being, meaning Mateta would offer the kind of depth that Pochettino needs if his team is to go the distance this time around.
The Bundesliga’s new goal machine has turned down Tottenham once – he’d be foolish to do so again.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
