Tottenham sign 17-year old striker Dane Scarlett to first pro contract

With all due respect to Troy Parrott and Oliver Skipp, the Tottenham Hotspur youth academy player who has received the most hipster buzz this season wasn’t either of the aforementioned players, but teenage striker Dane Scarlett. There’s good news today — Tottenham announced today that Scarlett has signed his first professional contract with the club, which runs for two years through the 2023 season!

The Great Dane burst on the scene this season and has been praised by Jose Mourinho, who said he wants Scarlett to be training full time with the first team next year. He made his Tottenham first team debut in November in the Europa League against Ludogorets, and his Premier League debut in February in a one minute cameo against West Brom.

But aside from that he’s been an absolute beast for the U18s, tallying 15 goals and four assists before making the leap to the U21s, where he has scored two goals in 220 minutes of action. At age 16.

Is the hype real? Boy, we sure hope so because these are gaudy numbers. However, only the rarest of teenagers can make the leap so soon up to Premier League football, and there’s still a giant Harry Kane standing in Dane’s way. That’s fine. That he’s signed a professional deal to stay at Spurs is the important thing. All signs suggest he’s ready for a loan, probably next season, unless Mourinho (or whoever is managing the team next year, jury’s still out) decides to keep him around to fully integrate him into the squad.

Youth development is a crap shoot and we’ll keep saying this until people start to believe it. However, we’re not going to stop you from creating “DANE >>> KANE” memes and posting them on the inter webz if you really want to. That’s fun as well.