Tottenham keeper Whiteman extends contract to 2022

If you like developing Tottenham Hotspur academy graduates and new contracts, today’s your lucky day! Spurs announced via social media that reserve goalkeeper Alfie Whiteman has signed a new professional deal with the club that will keep him in North London until 2022.

If you think this sounds kind of familiar, you’re right. Whiteman’s fellow academy graduate and goalkeeper competition Brandon Austin also signed the exact same deal, through 2022, a couple of weeks ago.

It makes a strange sort of cosmic sense. Whiteman, 21, and Austin have been friends and competitors since their academy days — Spurs’ coaching staff clearly likes them both and their friendly rivalry has pushed both of them to develop as they have jostled for the starting keeper position in the various underage teams at Tottenham. This doesn’t really change anything — Whiteman and Austin are still battling it out for the fourth keeper position behind Hugo Lloris, Paulo Gazzaniga, and (for now) Michel Vorm.

We’ve seen both Whiteman and Austin appear on the bench for Premier League matches this season thanks to the injuries to Lloris and Vorm, and it looks like both of them will continue to duke it out for the forseeable future. Like with Austin, it’s possible that Whiteman might get sent out on loan for some extra first team experience, but we won’t know that until it happens.

So for now, congrats to Alfie!