Jermain Defoe in talks for youth coaching role at Tottenham

Somehow I missed this story in the wake of everything that happened afterwards — former Tottenham Hotspur striker Jermain Defoe was a halftime guest of the club during Spurs’ 1-0 home win over Burnley on Sunday. Somewhere in that talk, which was not televised on American screens, it was revealed, according to Dan Kilpatrick, that Defoe is in discussions to join Spurs as a youth level coach.

That’s literally all we know at this point, but it’s a kind of cool development. There were rumors about Defoe being open to a Spurs coaching gig as far back as March of this year, but this is the first time that Defoe himself has talked about it, even if we don’t know exactly what was said. Notably, Yaya Toure is also reportedly in discussions to join Tottenham in a youth coaching role; it’s not clear if there’s room for both Yaya and JD Trouble, or if they’re both fighting for the same open position. That’d make for an interesting competition, wouldn’t it?

Defoe spent a decade at Spurs as a high-scoring striker over two separate stints — from 2004-2008, and again from 2009-2014. Along the way he scored 143 goals in 363 appearances for the club, putting him sixth on Spurs’ all-time goal scorers list. Defoe retired from football at the age of 39 in March after a 22 year career in the game. I hope he gets the job as I can’t think of a better instructor for our youngsters than JD on how to be a “fox in the box.”