Tottenham confirms departure of Keanan Bennetts to Gladbach

It’s done. Nineteen year old forward Keanan Bennetts has officially become the first Tottenham Hotspur player to leave the club in this summer’s transfer window after Spurs agreed a transfer that will take him to Borussia Gladbach in the Bundesliga. The move was confirmed on both Spurs’ and Gladbach’s Twitter accounts this morning.

Bennetts also tweeted on his personal Twitter account, expressing excitement for the new chapter of his career.

It’s tough to be a young English footballer right now, especially ones that come up through the academies of the top clubs. With the Premier League seemingly focusing on foreign talent at the top, it doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for young players to break through and establish themselves. That’s a problem for England, as with a few exceptions Premier League clubs are no longer considered incubators for future England national team stars. So if these players can head overseas to get experience, it’s better for them, and long term it’s better for England. But still, it kind of sucks to see a young, talented player leave because he feels like he can’t get a fair shake.

Bennetts is a talented footballer but clearly didn’t see a path to first team football ahead of him at Spurs, so this move makes sense. He follows in the footsteps of Nabil Bentaleb, Ismail Azzaoui, and Milos Veljkovic, Spurs academy grads who have moved to Germany for first team minutes in the past few years.

Good luck, Keanan.