Tottenham Hotspur secured a deal to sign a highly-rated Irish starlet in the dying stages of the transfer window, and it has now emerged that the Lilywhites saw off competition from many clubs across the Premier League and Europe to secure the teenager.
17-year-old forward seals Spurs move
Tottenham announced on Tuesday that they had reached an agreement with St Patrick Athletic for the transfer of 17-year-old Mason Melia, who has won many admirers with his performances in the Irish top flight over the last 18 months.
The teenager, who is the youngest goalscorer in League of Ireland history when he netted against UCD at just 15 years and 281 days old, will link up with the Spurs squad in January of next year, with Brexit-related transfer regulations stopping players from joining.
A report from Ireland has now suggested the Lilywhites won a fierce transfer battle to sign the young forward, who was attracting plenty of interest across the continent.
Tottenham beat several PL clubs to land Mason Melia
Irish outlet The 42 have now provided some information on Melia‘s switch to Tottenham, revealing that the North London side will pay an initial fee of €2m (£1.6m), which could rise to €4m (£3.3m) including add-ons.
They also share that St Partick’s Athletic have added a 20 per cent sell-on clause to the deal.
More interestingly, the outlet states that Melia was sought after by a number of clubs across Europe, with the strongest interest being shown by Bayer Leverkusen.
They claim that Manchester City were also keen on landing the Republic of Ireland Under-19 international, while Chelsea, Everton and Celtic were also in the running.
Tottenham are a very attractive club for emerging talent
The fact that Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray, Mathys Tel, and now Melia have opted to join Tottenham despite being of interest to many big clubs shows that Spurs are quickly becoming the go-to top club for emerging young talent.
Under Ange Postecoglou, the club have put their money where their mouth is by backing young talent and giving them an opportunity to express themselves.
A number of young players around Europe would have seen, which will be of huge benefit to Spurs when they compete against other top Premier League sides to sign these youngsters.