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Tottenham Hotspur has made its first official signing of the offseason, and they are promoting from within. Eighteen year old Spurs academy midfielder Jack Roles announced on his Instagram feed that he has signed his first professional contract with the club, a reported three year deal.
Roles, a native of Cyprus, had a very good year with Tottenham’s U18s, scoring 16 goals and notching four assists in just over 1700 minutes of action. That makes him the top scorer in the U18 through U23 teams, and tied for third most goals of any player in England’s U18 Premier League with 15. That’s a pretty incredible achievement considering he plays mostly as a central midfielder. (You know who also was a prolific scorer as a young central midfielder? Dele Alli. I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’.)
With the academy season finished, here are the 2016-17 #THFC U18 & U23s top scorers: pic.twitter.com/xbOjAvfUlm
— Tottenham Academy (@thfcacademy) May 17, 2017
Without giving too much away from our upcoming Prospect Rankings coming up later this summer, Roles is a solid prospect, though one that is probably at least a year or two away from making a push to crack Spurs’ first team. That said, Tottenham is a club that rewards promising youth players, and Roles has certainly earned his, uh, role as a professional footballer in Tottenham Hotspur’s setup. He’s one to watch for the future.