How a Tottenham prodigy ended up at Burnley

📅 Published: August 15, 2025

Curated by AllZimNews.com

That duo excelled in N17, playing 63 and 229 times respectively and earning three PFA Team of the Year inclusions between them.

But home fans may be more interested in seeing another ex-player, whose Spurs career spanned 15 electrifying minutes in the Carabao Cup.

It’s difficult to remember a Spurs youth teamer generating as much excitement before or since Marcus Edwards’ brief breakthrough early on in the Pochettino era.

The Argentine fueled the hype machine by calling the then-17-year-old “Mini Messi”, a tag that has, for better or worse, stuck with the diminutive dribbler ever since. “Sometimes I wonder whether it was wise to liken him to Messi.

At that age, Messi was making his debut for a Barcelona side featuring Ronaldinho,” Pochettino later said in journalist Guillem Balague’s book Brave New World.

Pochettino’s comments may have put extra pressure on Edwards, but he was merely articulating out loud what everyone else was already thinking.

Speak to any coach who has worked with young players in England over the past 10-15 years and Edwards’ name invariably crops up.

Dan Micciche has worked with academy players at Tottenham, England, MK Dons, Arsenal and Everton, and is now academy director at Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia.

Speaking to The i Paper, he reeled off the names of five players who especially stood out at U15 and U16 level: Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, Dele Alli, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Edwards.

Four have played for England and become household Premier League names. “I probably would have said Marcus Edwards,” Temisan Williams, another experienced youth coach, told The i Paper last week when asked which young player had most caught his eye. “When I saw him, I genuinely thought I’d seen the English Messi up close.

He was just so quick on the ball; it was so easy for him. ” Edwards was a bona fide superstar in academy football; it has taken him far longer to reach the top-flight than many coaches would have anticipated.

Pochettino spoke of Edwards’ “behavioural problems” at Spurs, and a loan at Norwich City was terminated early.

Edwards, for his part, admitted to being “a bit difficult” in his teenage years in an interview with The Independent.

Like many of his generation, he started over in Europe, impressing on loan at Rotterdam-based Excelsior before signing for Vitoria de Guimaraes in Portugal on a free.

From there, he went to Sporting Lisbon, where he played under Ruben Amorim, linked up with Pedro Porro on the right wing and won a league title.