I want to Like this more. What a great success story! I hope he comes home at some point but if he doesn’t, it sounds like our 50% sell on clause should bear fruit.
Marcus Edwards was compared to Messi but is now thriving in Portugal
For Edwards, who made his senior Tottenham debut against Gillingham in the EFL Cup the following day, Pochettino's slightly clumsy compliment haunted him for quite a long time.www.dailymail.co.uk
Marcus Edwards was compared to Lionel Messi by Mauricio Pochettino but played just 15 MINUTES for Tottenham... the explosive winger has relaunched his career abroad and is now set to take on Man City after signing for Sporting Lisbon
By ADAM SHERGOLD FOR MAILONLINE
- Marcus Edwards was regarded as one of Tottenham's brightest prospects
- That only enhanced when Pochettino compared his playing style to Lionel Messi
- But Edwards would only play one match for Tottenham in the EFL Cup
- There were issues with his discipline but he revived his career in the Eredivisie
- The tricky and quick winger then took a move to Vitoria Guimaraes in Portugal
- After thriving there, the 23-year-old has just signed for Sporting Lisbon
PUBLISHED: 22:00 GMT, 6 February 2022 | UPDATED: 22:01 GMT, 6 February 2022
'His qualities… it's only looks - his body and the way that he plays - remember a little bit from the beginning of Messi.' - Mauricio Pochettino on Marcus Edwards, September 20, 2016.
Imagine being a 17-year-old and hearing your manager has just mentioned you in the same breath as one of the greatest footballers of all-time. You'd feel 10 feet tall.
But then it would dawn on you that nobody is going to remember that Pochettino only meant the comparison in terms of comparing playing styles at first glance.
The Argentine wasn't predicting that Edwards was definitely going to be the next Messi, merely that they shared certain traits.
But by the time those comments had gone through the spin cycle of media and supporter hyperbole, an intense pressure of expectation had been loaded onto the youngster's shoulders.
For Edwards, who made his senior Tottenham debut against Gillingham in the EFL Cup the following day, Pochettino's slightly clumsy compliment haunted him for quite a long time.
Ultimately he moved abroad to escape the label and escape his comfort zone. Pochettino later admitted his regret at drawing those parallels.
At 17, Messi was making his breakthrough in the Barcelona team, the beginning of an unstoppable rise to legendary status. For the vast majority of players, it doesn't work out like that.
But five-and-a-half years later, Edwards is doing well. Now 23, he has just left Vitoria Guimaraes to sign for one of Portugal's biggest clubs in Sporting Lisbon. The transfer fee was reported to be around £7million.
The winger had scored eight goals and contributed four assists for Vitoria in the first half of the season.
Those numbers will almost certainly be boosted if he plays regularly at Sporting, who are scrambling to keep pace with Porto at the top of the Primeira Liga.
Even more excitingly, Sporting are about to play Manchester City in the last-16 of the Champions League. If he impresses, Edwards will return to the consciousness of English football fans.
Quick, tricky and agile, he has gained a reputation as a nightmare for defenders in the Portuguese top-flight.
Stephy Mavididi, formerly of Woolwich and now with Montpellier, who played alongside Edwards in the England youth ranks, said recently: 'He's one of the top three best players I've played against. I haven't seen anyone better live in front of my eyes.
'In the pockets, little nutmegs and stuff, the guy's a joke man!
'He's putting up good numbers in Portugal and proving he can play at a higher level. It's up to the world to see that now.'
In a perfect world. Edwards would be an established player at his boyhood club Spurs, listening to fans sing 'he's one of our own' as they do to Harry Kane.
Funnily enough, his nickname within the club at the time of Pochettino's comments was 'Mini Messi' and that 15-minute cameo against Gillingham was meant to be the first of many.
Unfortunately, it proved to be his one and only Spurs appearance.
Edwards suffered an ankle injury the following month which required surgery and he lost six months at a point when he might have been able to force his way into the team.
In the summer of 2017, he was part of the England Under 19 squad that won the European Championship and signed a new three-year contract at Spurs, though that had been delayed because of disputes in the negotiations that didn't do him any favours.
Game time was now going to be key but a loan move to Championship club Norwich in January 2018 didn't work out.
Norwich boss Daniel Farke said Edwards had to 'grow up a bit' in order to prosper and in the end he played just six minutes of football for the Canaries.
Edwards later said he was struggling with a back injury at the time, which meant he wasn't able to give his best effort in training, which perhaps led to Farke's blast.
But a second loan spell, at the Dutch club Excelsior Rotterdam, in 2018-19 proved far more successful.
Although the club were languishing at the wrong end of the Eredivisie, Edwards prospered and contributed two goals and four assists.
At the end of the season, he led the Eredivisie standings for dribbles per game, with an average of 3.3, which was more than the 3.2 of PSV's Steven Bergwijn, a player Spurs signed six months later.
Enfield-born Edwards admitted to feeling homesick in Holland at first but the year abroad was successful in turning a player Pochettino would describe as having 'authority and behavioural problems' in his book 'Brave New World' into a more professional footballer.
The positive time spent overseas, plus the example of other young English players prospering in Europe such as Jadon Sancho, meant Edwards needed little convincing to sign for Vitoria in 2019.
He told the i newspaper in 2020: 'I think it makes you grow up quicker - leaving where you're comfortable, with your friends and family at home.
'It makes you solely focus on football…. You live and breathe football, there's nothing else.'
His first season with Vitoria saw nine goals and nine assists, including one at the Emirates Stadium against Woolwich in the Europa League - an especially satisfying moment for a Spurs fan, as shown by his enthusiastic celebration.
A young footballer who idolised the likes of Neymar, Ronaldinho and Zinedine Zidane has been able to pull off similar tricks and have a game-changing influence.
In January 2021, Edwards was linked with a return to England with West Ham but instead he signed a contract with Vitoria until 2024 with a £45m release clause.
It seems that was to deter suitors from abroad but it hasn't put off Sporting from swooping to sign one of the league's best talents.
Edwards has said in interviews he doesn't want to 'dwell' on what might have been at Spurs and why would he?
With the prime years of his career yet to come, Sporting look to have a real gem.
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And, played and beat Scott Houghton at Colts U13s/U14s 3x and he never had a whiff of Marcus quality. Poor thread tittle, no offence Scott… (he bum rushed us, first half of first game, though we’d heard he was a bit special, 3-0 up at half time they were, beat them 4-3, we had Matt Jackson Luton, Everton, Wigan who drove us back into the game, and the bar manager said he’d give us £1 each at half time if we won, quality through the team, was district cup final 1983, local press reported it “The making of a thriller” think mum still has the cutting…
Next game I saved a penalty against him, we overpowered them and won 3-1 I think, game after he didn’t show up (mentally) and we won 6-1 and his brother tried to beat up our stand in Goalkeeper, saying how we were not allowed to do this to his brother! (I’d been banned for not cleaning my room, and, PE/Footie stuff!
So missed that game, sadly… Think the reserve also saved a penalty. As recall Dad saying I might not get back in the team, yeah right I thought, just been MOTM in another District School Cup final, was pretty bad ass at U12.
#Days
Next game I saved a penalty against him, we overpowered them and won 3-1 I think, game after he didn’t show up (mentally) and we won 6-1 and his brother tried to beat up our stand in Goalkeeper, saying how we were not allowed to do this to his brother! (I’d been banned for not cleaning my room, and, PE/Footie stuff!
So missed that game, sadly… Think the reserve also saved a penalty. As recall Dad saying I might not get back in the team, yeah right I thought, just been MOTM in another District School Cup final, was pretty bad ass at U12.
#Days
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TBF, the thread started as "Messi with an afro". So Houghton might miss the mark, but we're getting closer.
Got MoTM didn't he?
We don’t play with a player like him. However I think he would now do fine in the prem, he had no problem pushing our guys around. He is a number 10 who can play wing or false 9.
That kind of makes him perfect for Man City, Woolwich and Chelsea based on their managers systems. Expect one of those clubs to look at him particularly if he finds the CL not to hard. City in particularly will need someone when Bernardo Silva leaves, he apparently wants out to Spain and nearly went this summer.
That kind of makes him perfect for Man City, Woolwich and Chelsea based on their managers systems. Expect one of those clubs to look at him particularly if he finds the CL not to hard. City in particularly will need someone when Bernardo Silva leaves, he apparently wants out to Spain and nearly went this summer.
So you would swap him with Kulusevski or Richarlison then, right?
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Yeah but he wasn’t clinical when it came to the shot and that was, to my mind, one of the reasons we got rid of him because he lacks end product. Looked great that run and one two etc. but where is the all important goal? He’s improved but i dont (currently) regret selling him.
Agree guy always had immense talent but he was by reports very immature in his younger years. Obviously he has become far more professional in the years that have followed and is now a different person. He may have remained immature and made nothing of his talent, but well done to him for developing.
Also we could buy him for £26m as we get half the sell fee so if we really wanted him we could easily afford that.
Edwards will need to be much more than what he was agaibst is and on a regular basis.
I don't see that happening.
We love to go overboard but it's consistency that wins every argument about quality.
I don't get the size complains with Edwards.
I just saw him pretty much destroy us and bully Eric Dier. Size doesn't matter if you're intelligent and have impeccable balance.
Edwards if a fantastic footballer who perhaps didn't have the drive or the pathway needed at the time he was at Spurs. But he looks like he's really knuckled down and really showed us what we were missing when we decided to buy the likes of Nkoudou and give him a chance of Edwards in the first team.
I just saw him pretty much destroy us and bully Eric Dier. Size doesn't matter if you're intelligent and have impeccable balance.
Edwards if a fantastic footballer who perhaps didn't have the drive or the pathway needed at the time he was at Spurs. But he looks like he's really knuckled down and really showed us what we were missing when we decided to buy the likes of Nkoudou and give him a chance of Edwards in the first team.
trickles in? In the same way that Kane's shots "trickle in"?
If a shot goes in off the post, then fair play to the shooter. Kane trains to hit just inside the post with shots along the deck, they are the hardest for a keeper to stop.
I mean it wasn't really fired in with any venom. It just rolls in from a long way out. It's on target, hit well but it wasn't a goal you'd expect to concede.
Lol. Lloris was poor for the goal, the poor shot you're defending was far too weak for the distance it came from.
The American broadcast studio crew (Thierry Henry, Clint Dempsey, Jamie Carragher and Peter Schmeichel) were not particularly impressed with Hugo's effort here.
He'd have been clattered to hell about 3 times in the PL in that passage of play, though.He scored a Messi-eque goal
Very fine, goal, though. Hope he stays in Portugal/Spain and finds great success.