Some have achieved greater heights at the club and elsewhere, but very few, if any, are more “Tottenham” than Ledley King.
Outside their part of north London, King is perhaps not spoken about as much as he should be, but around White Hart Lane, the street in the district that gave the club’s former stadium its name, he is as revered as anyone.
The 25-foot-high mural of him on nearby Tottenham High Road is a celebration of one of the finest players Spurs ever produced; a one-club man who played through the pain as a chronic knee issue that plagued his career, and eventually forced him into an early retirement in 2012, aged 31.
His name demands respect among the neighbours, too, with Arsenal icon Thierry Henry describing King as one of the best central defenders he ever faced, praising his ability to win the ball without committing a foul.
After a brief period as an assistant coach on Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham staff in 2020-21, the now-45-year-old is active in his role as a club ambassador.
King has travelled with the squad to Auckland, New Zealand, and Sydney, Australia, for their ongoing pre-season tour, and helped deliver a community football session in the latter, in partnership with social enterprise Creating Chances’ Football United programme. The initiative uses football to strengthen social cohesion, belonging and leadership among young people from culturally diverse communities.
Listening to him reflect on his career in a question-and-answer session with the children involved at the end of the session, it was evident that the love Tottenham fans shower King with to this day is reciprocated.
Speaking to local fans a few days earlier in Auckland, King admitted that he had spoken to other former Spurs players about what, if anything, they could do to help the club navigate the unthinkable and unprecedented prospect of a first relegation since the 1970s last season.
As it transpired, Roberto De Zerbi, Spurs’ fourth head coach in less than a year, kept them up via a 1-0 home win against Everton on the final day of the Premier League campaign, and King was pleasantly surprised by how straightforward survival was in the end, given the circumstances.
“Before the game, I was really nervous,” King tells The Athletic. “But actually, when we kicked off, and the game was in flow, I felt pretty comfortable. I felt like we handled the occasion pretty well. We kept Everton away from our goal and limited their chances. I think we were as comfortable as you can be in that situation.”
“It was a tough season, of course. For me, it showed how much a lot of the ex-players still cared about the club, because when things were not going well, so many people reached out to see if there was anything they could do, in any way, to try to support.
“It’s tough when you’re at every home game, and your home form is not good, and you’re searching for results. Everyone feels it at the club. It was a tough, tough season, but we got through it in the end, and things are looking a lot more positive now.”
Backed by the Lewis family, the majority owners who have ramped up their commitment to investing in transfers after sacking long-serving executive chairman Daniel Levy last September, Spurs have been one of the Premier League’s most active sides in the summer transfer window.
They twice broke their transfer record in early July, first signing West Ham’s Matheus Fernandes for £85million, followed by fellow midfielder Sandro Tonali (up to £100m) from Newcastle days later. Centre-backs Marcos Senesi (Bournemouth) and Jan Paul van Hecke (Brighton) have signed to bolster De Zerbi’s options in defence, as has Liverpool stalwart Andy Robertson, a player who was recruited as much for his experience and standards as for his quality from left-back.
Ahead of Spurs’ 2-0 win over Auckland FC at the city’s Eden Park on Sunday in the opening match of the tour, De Zerbi said he believed the club needed more players in Robertson’s mould because, as the Italian put it: “We need to increase experience, we have to improve in mentality, we have to be stronger.”
The 97-time Scotland international and long-time captain had nine trophy-laden years at Liverpool, including winning the Premier League twice and a Champions League, before leaving this summer at the end of his contract, and King can spot some similarities with the impact Edgar Davids had when he joined Tottenham from Inter of Italy in summer 2005, also as a 32-year-old free agent.
“Edgar, in terms of what he’d won, definitely had an impact on us as a young group at the time,” King says of the Netherlands international, who won a Champions League with Ajax in the Netherlands and three Serie A titles with Juventus and also played for Milan and Barcelona before coming to England. “Andy, I’m sure, can have that on the group. You know what it takes to win, setting the standards, and Edgar definitely did that, so I can see that similarity.
“Edgar had been at (big) clubs and won trophies. Immediately when he came into the building, the first question that he asked me when we sat down at lunch was, ‘Can we win things?’ That was his mentality straight away. I think he helped a young group of players become better players by his standards on the training pitch and after training. He spent a lot of time with young players.”
Davids did not increase his silverware collection during the two years he spent with Tottenham (though many of the young players he helped nurture were part of Spurs’ League Cup-winning side of 2008), but Robertson will no doubt be keen to add more medals to his cabinet.
Few would have predicted the club would have to wait 17 years before they next tasted glory after King lifted that League Cup as captain in 2008. But with De Zerbi now at the helm, and a squad who finally reached the summit again with the Europa League triumph under Ange Postecoglou in May 2025, King believes they are not as far away from challenging for trophies again as back-to-back 17th-place finishes in the Premier League over the past two seasons might suggest.
“I think it was important to get one over the line,” King adds. “To have that feeling. We did it in 2008, and got to the (League Cup) final again the next season and lost on penalties. This group of players, the majority of them have done that, so I think that puts them in good stead going into any tournament. It’s an exciting prospect.
“Of course, there’s a lot of hard work to be done. There are a lot of good teams in the league thinking along the same lines. We believe we have a really talented group of players, and when they perform to their level, we can be right up there.”
Within the Tottenham fanbase, green shoots of belief that the club could be on to something special are beginning to sprout.
Several of the usual suspects at the top of the league table are entering transition phases with new managers, and while De Zerbi falls in that bracket having only been appointed in late March, he will benefit from the time spent on the training ground during those weeks at the end of last season and the strong bond he formed with many of the players as they dodged relegation.
“We made our change last season,” says King. “There are a few teams that made their change and are starting from fresh now. For Spurs, it’s just about starting the season as well as possible, trying to get some momentum off the back of last season, and then taking each game and month as it comes and seeing where you land.”
Reinforcements in attack, with De Zerbi publicising his desire for two or more “first-level” forward players to make a difference in the final third, will be essential if Spurs are to embark on a special season, but the squad looks stacked with difference-makers in defence.
Pedro Porro was a key player as Spain won the World Cup, while Senesi and Cristian Romero (albeit the latter is expected to leave the club in this transfer window) are scheduled back at Hotspur Way not long before the start of the season after reaching that July 12 final with Argentina. However, arguably none of them raised as many eyebrows in their home nation during the tournament as full-back Djed Spence, who was England’s breakout star of the World Cup as they finished third.
His standout moment, a tackle on Giuliano Simeone of Argentina in the semi-final, drew comparisons to one King made on Chelsea forward Arjen Robben in 2006. In King’s view, it was a challenge that typified Spence’s athletic quality and desire to dig in and defend.
“I thought Djed was really good,” King says. “He surprised some people away from Tottenham, probably. It didn’t surprise me, as I’ve seen him throughout the season, so I knew what he brings to the table. I thought he grew into the tournament and gained confidence, and the tackle was a great one. As defenders, you’re always taught to run back as hard as you can, and I think when you’re a defender of Djed’s speed, you always believe that there’s a chance to get back.
“I think that’s why he was picked for the squad. Especially his one-on-one ability. He can play on both sides; players like that are always important to the squad.”
Near-mastery of the art of defending is what endeared King to the Spurs faithful, and it’s what he enjoys looking out for now in young prospects.
Tottenham are blessed with an outstanding crop of academy-level youngsters who play at centre-back, with Malachi Hardy, 18, and Jun’ai Byfield, 17, considered two of the best in the nation among their age group.
And while King is understandably hesitant to put any undue pressure on their teenage shoulders, he can’t help but get excited by a future heir to his crown — perhaps even one worthy of his unofficially retired No 26 shirt.
“I love seeing it,” he says. “I take a big interest in young defenders at the football club. But at the same time, I realise how difficult it is. I don’t like to put any pressure on young players. We’ve always had great talent coming through, but a lot of it is up to them and their dedication and discipline. And of course, you need a good manager who has belief in you.
“So it’s up to them to put in the hard work now, and we’ll hopefully see them in the future.”