Spurs sign Lens starlet Taarabt

therecklessone

Eurosport report

Tottenham Hotspur have completed the signing of teenage midfielder Adel Taarabt from French club Racing Lens.

Spurs have been tracking the 17-year-old for the last four weeks and finally concluded a deal this week, which is worth in the region of 3.5 million euros.

"I can confirm that everything is tied up," Taarabt told Lens' official website. "I was in London on Monday and Tuesday to undergo a medical. Everything went well and I took the chance to put pen to paper.

"I have signed with the London club for a period of five years. To be more precise, it is a three-year contract, with an option for two more years.

Taarabt has played just two minutes of first team football this season for Lens, and had become increasingly more frustrated at his lack of first team opportunities.

"It was my intention to stay at Lens until June," he continued. "But they thought it better to leave straight away after I had signed for another club.

"At Lens, I didn't have the chance to play. I want to play, it's as simple as that."

The youngster also confirmed that Spurs were not the only club interested in securing his services, with two other Premiership clubs tracking the player.

"Other than Tottenham, there were also Arsenal and Chelsea," he said. "I opted for Spurs because of their plans for me. They effectively offered to quickly integrate me into the first team to offer me maximum playing time.

"They hope to get the same from me as Arsenal did from Theo Walcott. Concerning Arsenal and Chelsea, the propositions were interesting, but as with Lens, they suggested that I spent time in the youth team and the reserves."

Ive heard this fella described as the new Zidane, just hope we give him the time to integrate and adjust to the English game. Supposed to be a central playmaker, so not the answer to our left side.

cxcully

A French Wikipedia article says(I think) that he is "very gifted technically.Observers are predicting a bright future for him.He is one of the young Lens players who are already at the forefront of the French team".
But he appears to have only a brief substitute appearance in Le Championnat although the article reports that "he was credited with many technical moves".
Sounds interesting-a new self-confident Zidane-type or will he languish in the Reserves.It's brave though...3 1/2 million bucks.

kinaldo

Wasn't Bruno Cheyrou also described as the new Zidane?