Tottenham in competition with Bayer Leverkusen to sign PSG prospect
Tottenham Hotspur are in a race to sign Paris Saint-Germain prospect Axel Tape (17), according to a report from RMC Sport journalist Fabrice Hawkins.
Tape, a versatile player capable of playing in midfield or in defence, is yet to make a Ligue 1 appearance for his formative club, however, he has played in a Coupe de France encounter this season. That came as a centre-back in a 4-2 win over minnows Espaly in January.
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However, Tape's trainee contract with Les Parisiens is coming to an end. RMC Sport understands that he will not sign a professional contract with PSG. Instead, he will be on the move this summer. Hawkins reports that Bayer Leverkusen are well-positioned in their bid to bring the France U18 international (two caps) to the club come the end of the season.
However, Tottenham Hotspur are also pushing to bring in the versatile 17-year-old as a free agent.
GFFN | Luke Entwistle
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New York Times
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New York Times
an hour ago
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There, he won an FA Youth Cup and league titles as both an under-18 and under-23 (twice). In 2020-21, he scored 24 times in 20 league starts under Enzo Marseca for the under-23s. It is a single-season Premier League 2 goals record which still stands. 'It was really special. I smashed it. It's nice to know that someone's not broken it,' says Delap at the Wembley event, ahead of collecting an award: Premier League academy graduate of the year (on-pitch achievements) for 2024-25. That City team is one of the best ever assembled at academy level, featuring current European top-five league players — and multiple senior or under-21 internationals — in Delap, Cole Palmer, Romeo Lavia, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, James McAtee, Morgan Rogers, James Trafford and Felix Nmecha. Advertisement 'It was so talented,' Delap says of that title-winning side. 'You never know at that age what everyone's going to go on to do, but it just showed how good we must have been because everyone's flying at the moment. 'They're all taking different paths but everyone's doing well.' Those paths are also converging slightly, with Delap reuniting with Palmer and Lavia this summer at Chelsea to be coached, at first-team level now, by Maresca again. He had been on the fringes of Pep Guardiola's first team in 2021-22 but Erling Haaland then arrived the next summer from Borussia Dortmund, so the 'pathway' to City's No 9 shirt was blocked. Championship loans with Stoke City, Preston North End and Hull City followed, before he made a permanent move to promoted Ipswich Town last summer. 'To have those different experiences with different managers and different playing styles is really important for someone so young. It's really helped me,' he says. Delap acclimatised quickly to the Premier League in his full-debut season (he had made two substitute appearances for City, totalling 47 minutes of game time). He scored 12 of relegation-bound Ipswich's 36 league goals, including two penalties, and earned a reputation for hard-hitting shots, a variety of finishes, and his physicality in duelling with defenders and ball-carrying over big distances. 'It's different, stepping up (to the Premier League),' he says. 'Everyone just gets stronger, more experienced and faster. You don't get as many chances, and there is the relentlessness of game after game, being on it, and the competitiveness is higher.' Delap is only the eighth Englishman aged 22 or younger to score 10+ goals in a Premier League season since 2018-19. He cites Harry Kane — now England men's captain and all-time top-scorer, who had four EFL loans in his teens before breaking through at Tottenham — as a role model; one he can now look forward to joining in the Champions League next season. 'The plan doesn't stand still,' says Saunders. 'You continue to evolve and improve. We've updated the EPPP so it continues to be fit for purpose going forward.' Some tweaks were small, such as changing Premier League 2 from an under-23s competition to under-21s, 'really to reflect the age group of players that were playing in it'. Advertisement 'We can move quite quickly from 'The data and the feedback suggest this is a good idea' (to) 'Let's move ahead and do it',' he says, citing the Premier League International Cup. This was introduced as a 16-team tournament (eight Premier League sides and eight from continental Europe) in 2014-15 but a decade later has doubled in size. The benefit is exposure, Saunders says: 'Making sure that those young players, the first time they step on a Premier League pitch and face a German, a Spanish or a French player, they've had the experience of that through the pathways.' The National League Cup was brought back last year for similar reasons. 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Saunders points out that, in the Euros final against Spain last July, Saka was playing in a front four with Kane (the German Bundesliga's 2023-24 top scorer), Jude Bellingham (2023-24 player of the year in Spain's La Liga) and Phil Foden (who won the same honour in the Premier League that season): 'All of them have in common that they're English and they've come through our academy system — each of them taking ownership of their pathway.' Saunders and pathways. He is wonderfully relentless, and, just once, lets himself revel in 15 years of success in developing the next generation. 'There was a time,' he recalls, 'when people said, 'We're not tactically or technically at the level of our European counterparts', to the point now where we say, 'We've got so many amazing No 10s — how do we fit them into the national team?'' (Top photos: Brennan Johnson, left, and Liam Delap; Getty Images)
Yahoo
11 hours ago
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