Tottenham Hotspur could have signed Sevilla’s Champions League specialist Wissam Ben Yedder for just £7.5m in 2016.
In 12 Champions League games for Sevilla, Wissam Ben Yedder has hit the back of the net ten times.
He’s now the Andalusian club’s all-time record goalscorer in Europe’s premiere club competition, surpassing the previous record set by Frederic Kanoute.
And he’s also the scourge of Liverpool. Jurgen Klopp’s side were 3-0 up and cruising at Sevilla’s Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan on Tuesday night, only for Ben Yedder to pull one back moments after half-time with a trademark near-post run and clever flicked header.
Nine minutes later, it was 3-2 – Ben Yedder scoring from the spot at the second attempt. And though he was off the pitch, substituted, when Guido Pizarro put the seal on a classic comeback, it was the 27-year-old’s electric movement and clinical finishing that transformed a foregone conclusion into a contest after half-time.
And while Tottenham’s Champions League campaign isn’t going too badly either, qualifying for the knockout stages after beating Dortmund 2-1 away on Tuesday, Spurs fans would be forgiven for wondering why they did not see fit to stump up just £7.5 million for Ben Yedder in 2016.
According to The Standard, that is how much Tottenham would have had to pay to bring the Frenchman in from Ligue 1 side Toulouse a year ago. And that is how much Sevilla did pay to win the race for the quicksilver striker.
With the ineffective Fernando Llorente doing little so far to suggest he is anything like an improvement on Vincent Janssen, maybe Ben Yedder was the perfect Harry Kane back-up that Spurs could’ve had.
He’s certainly proving that he can do it on the biggest stage – against English opposition too.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
