Getting to know Eric Dier

The signing of Eric Dier by Tottenham has raised a few eyebrows this week. After all, the story of an established English player returning home, having represented his country at various levels and still being relatively unknown is somewhat rare.

Eric once gave an interview and stated that were it not for his PE teacher at his primary school he would never have gotten into football. Eric’s teacher Miguel Silva was the first to discover the boys remarkable talent and through his connections got him his trial at Sporting. We caught up with Miguel, to get a further insight into the younger Eric Dier.

“Eric was very mature as a youth player. At the age of 8/ 9 he played comfortably with children the age of 12/13 and was not treated any differently by the other children as Eric was considered as good as them. Eric physically was always tall and big, he was a player that passed the ball and did not run with the ball a lot. He would never lose the ball, he’d pass it.

Eric as a youngster had good positional awareness and found himself intercepting passes and collecting the ball as plays broke down. As the years went on at Sporting he continued to develop and educate himself to the sport and to the club. Developing into a player comfortable on the ball and in the Sporting philosophy, he developed into a defender that could build up attacks from the back.

He also became a set piece specialist taking free kicks and scoring goals and being dangerous from corners. He is very cool headed and can pick a pass from deep positions. Eric was very humble and very focused on being the professional that he can.”

Eric remained with Sporting when his family moved to Barcelona and Sporting would send a private jet to collect him for weekend training. Eric later moved into the Sporting Academy, it was his choice to immerse himself in the culture and language showing great maturity for someone so young.

“I think that Eric is an excellent inclusion to the club and he is the style of player Spurs seems to like.

Eric is versatile and can play in any of the positions in the back four as well as in a holding midfielder role in front of the defence.

For a big guy he is quick, strong and as I have said before very good technically. If he is given the chance I believe that he will develop into one of England’s (and Europe’s) top defenders.

A unique aspect about of Eric I think, is that most top English defenders were during their youth development either midfielder or forwards and as they got older they were asked to play further back in their teams. But Eric has always been a defender and has always enjoyed being one.

I think with his attributes he would be better suited in a defensive midfield role, but he is happy to play in central defence. And when asked he is truly happy to play where the coach wants and where he can help the team more.”

At 20 and having played across the backline and as a holding midfielder it would appear that Tottenham have made a very shrewd signing.  We hope that Eric continues to develop in the years to come for Spurs, the future is indeed very bright!

We would like to give thanks to Miguel Silva for his time.