Tottenham Hotspur sign 15-year old son of Teemu Tainio

Tottenham Hotspur have made a transfer signing! According to Finnish football club HJK Helsinki, who announced the deal on their official website, Spurs have agreed to sign 15-year old HJK academy player Maximus Tainio. The transfer will go through in June, 2017 and Tainio will join Tottenham’s academy. The deal also contains an option for a professional contract.

If that name sounds a little familiar, it should. Maximus Tainio is the son of former Finnish international and Tottenham player Teemu Tainio, who made 61 appearances for Spurs between 2005-2008, scoring three goals.

Teemu was well liked by his teammates and Spurs fans during his Tottenham tenure. He helped take Spurs to the brink of the Champions League in 2006 but was one of the players affected by acute food poisoning in the infamous “Lasagnagate” match against West Ham on the last match of the season that consigned Spurs to fifth place behind Arsenal.

Obviously, nobody has any idea how good Maximus is, but Spurs’ academy coaches obviously see something in him that they think they can develop. Maximus expressed excitement in moving to London and starting work at Spurs this summer.

“I am very pleased with the agreement, since this is a pretty rare for a Finnish player. The future, of course, will stretch me, but I am getting used quickly to a new environment.”

As for Teemu, he seems perfectly happy to send his son to one of his old clubs, and acknowledges that moving to a Premier League academy setup will be challenging.

“This is where the work begins. Now the doors are opened and the boy has a real chance to show his ability. The next step depends on him.”