DeAndre Yedlin granted work permit, will join Tottenham Hotspur in January

DeAndre Yedlin will be joining his new Tottenham Hotpsur teammates in training when the January window opens. Several English newspapers including the Mirror are now reporting that Yedlin, who Spurs made an agreement to sign this past summer, has been granted a work permit by the UK government and is set to formally sign with Tottenham when the transfer window opens on January 1.

Yedlin was granted a Governing Body Endorsement by the United Kingdom Border Agency, meaning that he no longer needs to wait on his Latvian passport application to come through in order to sign with Spurs.

One of the problems some young Americans face when attempting to make a move to play in England is the difficulty in receiving a work permit in the U.K. The regulations are stringent, requiring that the player either be ranked in the top 70 of the FIFA World Player Rankings, or have played in 75% of his national team's matches in the past two years. That's enormously difficult for a young player to do, even one as talented as Yedlin. It was thought that he would need to secure a Latvian passport in order to smooth his work permit application, as his grandmother is Latvian, but it appears that even that wasn't necessary.

Spurs are expected to make an official announcement about Yedlin soon.