Last week, an interesting statistic popped up on social media that piqued the interest of Tottenham Hotspur supporters.
The nugget in question was this: Tottenham-owned Luka Vuskovic is the highest-scoring teenager in Europe’s top 10 leagues this season.
The Croatian wonderkid has been more prolific even than Barcelona’s Lionel Messi heir apparent Lamine Yamal.
Vuskovic’s potential has been an open secret for a while. Just two days after his 16th birthday, he made his senior debut for Hajduk Split against Dinamo Zagreb in the Eternal derby, the biggest fixture in Croatian football.
In September 2023, when still only 16, Vuskovic agreed a future transfer to Spurs with the north London club committing to a reported £12m fee for a prospect with only eight senior appearances to his name. Still only 17, Vuskovic is already a regular fixture for Croatia’s U21s.
His development has been handled carefully over the past 18 months, taking in loans at Radomiak Radom in the Polish top-flight during the second half of 2023-24 and Westerlo in Belgium for the entirety of this campaign.
Vuskovic scored three goals in 14 games with Radom and has followed that with six in 20 for Westerlo. It’s an impressive strike rate, especially considering that Vuskovic is an uncompromising centre-back rather than a prodigious forward.
Vuskovic doesn’t look like a typical 17-year-old. He has a half sleeve on his left forearm for one thing, proof of Croatia’s more lax tattoo regulations compared to the UK, but he is also tall, powerfully built and a monster in the air.
He has won 72 aerial duels – the second most in Belgium’s Jupiler League – and has a 68.9 per cent success rate overall. You suspect that appetite to attack the ball will serve him well in England.
“Luka has certainly been the revelation at Westerlo this season,” Kersten Steurbaut, a sports journalist at Gazet van Antwerpen, tells The i Paper.
“He scored four times with his head, which is undoubtedly an asset. His heading strength is a great weapon, but perhaps even more remarkable is his physical strength.
“He is barely 17 but already has the body of a player who has been playing professional football for 10 years.
“That is undoubtedly the result of his dedication. Every morning he is one of the first players at the club to do some extra training in the gym.”
As his most recent goal against Club Brugge on Boxing Day proved, he is not just the second coming of Domagoj Vida; there is technical proficiency to go with the aerial power.
As a looping header came back across the box, Vuskovic arced his body into position, timed his leap to perfection and thumped a spectacular acrobatic volley past former Liverpool keeper Simon Mignolet.
“Even the home crowd treated him to applause,” Steurbaut says.
Goals for a defender are a bonus. Gabriel Magalhaes is the Premier League’s most prolific defender, but Mikel Arteta wouldn’t pick him every week if he couldn’t do his day job properly. Vuskovic has shown plenty of promise besides ostentatious overhead kicks.
“Defensively, he is strong, both in the duels and playing out and positionally too,” Steurbaut says. Vuskovic has a higher pass accuracy rate than any of his teammates who have played more than 10 league games. Although Westerlo are 12th in a 16-team division, he is comfortable at that level.
As you’d expect of someone still so callow, he is not yet the finished product and the job of Spurs coaches will be to develop him further.
“He looks nonchalant at times, so a mistake does creep in,” Steurbaut says. “His speed is also a working point. Against fast strikers, he gets finished off in the transition.”
That second point is significant given how advanced Tottenham’s back four play under Ange Postecoglou. They are severely weakened when Micky van de Ven is unavailable given his frightening recovery pace and as of yet haven’t found a suitable alternative to the flying Dutchman.
However, given Tottenham’s defensive issues – 18-year-old midfielder Archie Gray and back-up full-back Djed Spence were the centre-backs for the second half against Newcastle last weekend – and the faith that Postecoglou has shown in other teenagers this season, it is not unreasonable to assume that Vuskovic may have been given a chance in recent weeks.
Possessing one of the most highly-rated young defenders in Europe but not being able to select them at the peak of an unprecedented injury crisis is typical Tottenham.
Brexit red tape means that Spurs knew they wouldn’t be able to use Vuskovic for the best part of two years when they bought him. Since 1 January 2021, English clubs have been unable to acquire players under the age of 18 from outside of the UK due to more stringent freedom of movement laws.
The regulations mean that Vuskovic won’t technically become a Tottenham player until this summer when his five-year contract with the club will officially start.
Should he maintain or even accelerate his development in the second half of the season, Vuskovic may be part of their first-team squad next term.
The future of another Spurs youngster playing alongside Vuskovic in Antwerp is less certain.
Alfie Devine, who became Tottenham’s all-time youngest appearance maker and goalscorer during an FA Cup tie against Marine in January 2021, is also spending the campaign at Westerlo after linking up with them in September.
The 20-year-old has scored three times in 14 league appearances but hasn’t made as dramatic an impact on the team and the league as Vuskovic has.
“No doubt he has good feet and could push Westerlo to a higher level with his qualities, but his impact on the team is still too limited,” Steurbaut says.
“As a No 10, he cannot make his mark on the team enough. He is also often absent for long periods during a match.
“His predecessor Nicolas Madsen [who joined QPR] was more involved, asking for the ball more often. I think Alfie should be able to do the same.”
That both Vuskovic and Devine are at Westerloo, though, speaks to the growing cooperation between the clubs.
In November, Westerlo outlined their intention to “explore deeper and more extensive collaboration opportunities in the future”, with Spurs following constructive discussions with the Premier League club’s hierarchy.
They added that the loaning of Vuskovic and Devine “may be the first step toward a future exchange of ideas, players and resources”.
“At Westerlo, they are convinced that the Belgian league is a perfect learning ground for young players who are not yet ready for the Premier League,” Steurbaut adds.
Perhaps an alliance between a club with a cockerel on its badge with another nicknamed the Flying Roosters was inevitable. With Spurs accelerating plans to sign top young talent from around the globe, expect other prospects to follow in Vuskovic’s sizeable footsteps in the future.
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