Will Lankshear left Tottenham in the summer of 2026 in a big money move to Middlesbrough.
Lankshear had been highly regarded internally by Spurs, but there was an admission that the club would be unable to offer him the first-team football he needs to develop.
The youngster had made a name for himself in the 2023/24 campaign as he fired Tottenham‘s youth side to the Premier League 2 title and worked himself into Ange Postecoglou‘s first-team plans.
Loan spells to the Championship followed, with even talk after the 2026 World Cup that Lankshear could be the man to follow in Harry Kane’s footsteps one day for England.
For now, his future is away from Tottenham. But here’s everything you need to know about Will Lankshear, including his goalscoring record, those comparisons to the former Tottenham captain, and his potential path back to the Lilywhites one day.
The story of Lankshear’s Spurs career
Will Lankshear joined Tottenham from Sheffield United in the summer of 2022. That led to the young striker linking up with the club’s development side, where he made his mark through the 2023/24 season.
He scored 25 goals as Tottenham’s U21 team stormed to the Premier League 2 title. That included 18 goals in 19 league games, plus another four in five as Spurs won the play-offs. There were another couple in the EFL Trophy too.
Lankshear was unsurprisingly named Premier League 2 player of the season and won the Golden Boot.
After impressing so highly, Lankshear was included in Tottenham’s pre-season tour to Asia. There were suggestions he’d leave the club on loan, though Ange Postecoglou decided to keep the young striker close instead.
That saw appearances on the bench against Brighton and Manchester United, before his full Spurs debut came in the Europa League. Playing as the lone striker versus Ferencvaros for 66 minutes, Lankshear was impressive as Tottenham ran out 2-1 winners. He scored his first goal for Spurs a few weeks later in the same competition, as they lost 3-2 away to Galatasaray.
He did get his first minutes in the Premier League as a late substitute against Fulham, Southampton and Leicester, but it was decided in January a loan spell would be best for his development.
He joined West Brom, but endured a difficult time with just 346 minutes of football. He struggled for starts. He didn’t score, either.
He was back in the Championship for the 2025/26 season, joining Oxford United this time. Here, Lankshear fared far better, scoring three times in his five games, going on to score 11 in 44 appearances. He also registered four assists too.
It was not enough to prevent Oxford from being relegated, however. He was still named Oxford’s Young Player of the Season, before returning to Tottenham that summer to see what was next for him.
Why did Tottenham sell Will Lankshear?
Despite his huge potential, Tottenham opted to sell Lankshear to Middlesbrough for a fee around £10m in the summer of 2026.
According to reports, that figure could climb as high as £20m should add-ons be met.
With Lankshear wanting game time, Tottenham knew they were unable to guarantee him that. That was part of a reason behind the parting of the ways. Furthermore, Standard Sport reported that Spurs wanted to drive greater productivity from their academy. That means progression to the first-team, or the generation of funds.
For Lankshear, of course, it was the latter, allowing them to reinvest in Roberto De Zerbi‘s rebuild.
Could Lankshear return to Tottenham one day?
There was no buy-back clause in the deal agreed with Middlesbrough. This would have allowed Tottenham to re-sign their former young star for a pre-agreed fee – most likely below the market value he would have gone on to reach.
They did insert a 20% sell-on clause and, intriguingly, matching rights in the deal. That’s something they have done with the majority of their sales of youngsters.
It gives them the chance to match any future bids Middlesbrough accept for Lankshear, paving the way to bring him back to N17.
Harry Kane 2.0?
Many fans have likened Will Lankshear to Spurs legend Harry Kane, from the way he moves on the pitch to his incredible finishing ability.
Lankshear is a tall, physically strong striker who is able to use his body intelligently to draw fouls, beat his man, and win the ball in the air.
He’s good with his feet, has great vision, and knows exactly where the back of the net is. His impeccable range of finishing — be it long-range strikes, composed finishes one-on-one, or finessed efforts from inside the box — has been likened to the kinds of goals Spurs fans saw from Kane during his time in North London.
Will Lankshear’s age, height, weight, and more
Will Lankshear was born in Welwyn Garden City in England on April 20, 2005, making him 21-years-old at the time of writing.
He stands tall at 1.89m high, and weighs 80kg, making him one of the more physically imposing figures in the Spurs squad.
You can find Will Lankshear on Instagram where he has 70k followers and is pretty active. He is also on Twitter/X.