When Mason Melia touches the ball, heads turn.
The 18-year-old St Patrick’s Athletic striker — who will join Tottenham Hotspur in January — shows a technical quality rarely seen in the League of Ireland, let alone from someone his age. That is because, until recently, talented young players just did not play in the competition, instead joining Premier League academies in their teens.
That changed after the UK’s exit from the European Union in 2020. New rules meant players from the Republic of Ireland without a British passport could not move to English clubs until they turned 18. Tottenham agreed a £2million ($2.7m) deal for Melia in February, when he was still 17, and were content to wait until January for him to arrive. Back then Melia was promising but not yet the league’s standout player. Since then, he has developed into exactly that.
With his transfer to Tottenham already agreed, Melia might have coasted through his final St Patrick’s season, which is approaching its end having started in February. Instead, he immersed fully himself in it. “It’s too early to think about Tottenham,” Melia told the Irish Independent last month. Melia keeps tabs on his future club, but often misses their games because of his St Patrick’s duties.
This focus has reaped rewards. Melia has scored 12 league goals this season — the second-most in the division and the highest from open play. In March, he became the Republic of Ireland Under-21s’ youngest ever goalscorer in a 3-1 win over Hungary, beating a record set by former Spurs striker Troy Parrott.
He then backed it up with a double against Moldova last month in a European qualifier. Melia did score an own goal in the Under-21s’ 2-2 draw with Slovakia on Friday but nonetheless, that he started the season nursing a back injury casts his recent international achievements in an even more impressive light.
“If he’d been fully fit across the season, he’d have done a lot more damage. He’s been terrific,” said St Patrick’s manager Stephen Kenny, the former Republic of Ireland head coach, speaking to Irish outlet OTB Sports. In the same interview, Kenny identified Melia’s “ability to take it in possession, turn and accelerate away from defenders” as his standout trait.
Watching footage of Melia, it is easy to see what he means. Against Bohemians in April, Melia’s spatial awareness and footwork allow him to spin away from the onrushing Leigh Kavanagh and surge into the final third.
Melia has missed out on the elite coaching offered by Premier League academies, so his time at St Patrick’s has exposed him to the physical demands of senior football, where he has made close to 100 appearances. He has learned to handle the rougher side of the game; his speed and skill make him a lightning rod for heavy challenges and persistent fouling. Kenny highlighted that “in some games, players are taking turns having a go at him”.
Melia is well equipped for the rough and tumble. “The standout with Mason is that he’s physically a beast and has been like that for quite a few years,” said former Chelsea winger and Shelbourne manager Damien Duff, talking to RTE.
Melia actively seeks contact with defenders. By engaging defenders closely, he makes it easier to roll past them, accelerating away before they can react. This direct running and tidy footwork were evident when Tottenham signed him, but he now combines them with greater end product in the final third. Melia is enjoying the best form of his career, scoring six goals in his last seven league games.
Before St Patrick’s Conference League qualifier against Besiktas — which they lost 7-3 on aggregate — the Turkish side’s then manager, former Manchester United striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, praised Melia as a “mature finisher” in his press conference following the first leg of that tie.
Like Solskjaer in his playing days, Melia is a penalty-box striker, with only five of his 70 shots this season taken from outside the area.
His most recent goalscoring outing came on his 18th birthday, when he scored twice in a 4-0 win against bottom-of-the table Cork City.
Melia usually buzzes around the pitch, sniffing out any hint of an opportunity, and from the outset he looked his lively best. In the example below, he pinches a loose ball on the edge of the box, drops a shoulder to create space, and sees his shot blocked at the last moment.
His first goal showcased his poacher’s instincts, finding space with a quick jink to head home at the back post. A year ago, heading was the weakest part of Melia’s game but he has worked to improve it, scoring three times with his head this season.
His second was a composed finish from close range after running on to a long ball. An earlier miss had illustrated another aspect of Solskjaer’s praise: his industry off the ball.
“One of the things I like most about him is his attitude to pressing,” Solskjaer said. Melia harried and dispossessed Cork City centre-back Rory Feely as he dawdled on the ball, before skying the chance over.
His finishing still needs refining, particularly with his left foot, which he has used to take shots on only eight occasions all season.
But it’s his ability to conjure up these chances that is exceptional. Here against Shamrock Rovers, he generates space inside a packed box with dazzling footwork before cannoning an effort off the bar.
Melia’s instinct when receiving the ball is front-footed. This has, at times, been a hindrance for St Patrick’s as he can run into dead ends while isolated up top instead of taking the safer, backwards option. But this only points to a young striker, brimming with confidence and conviction, unafraid to try new things.
His campaign has not been universally positive. Collectively, St Patrick’s have endured a disappointing season: fifth in the league when a title challenge was expected. It was the injury of his strike partner, Aidan Keena, that precipitated Melia’s purple patch; he looked less assured sharing the No 9 duties or playing in a top two with Keena, where he typically dropped deeper.
But his talent is abundantly clear, especially in a lower-calibre competition like the League of Ireland. Melia cites Tottenham’s Lucas Bergvall as a player to aspire to. Bergvall’s journey shares similarities with Melia’s: he too was scouted after shining in a lesser fancied league — in his case, the Swedish Allsvenskan.
The plan at Tottenham, after a short break following the end of St Patrick’s season, is for Melia to train with the first team immediately. With the competition for places so intense, a loan move or time with the under-21s is more likely.
Although Ange Postecoglou was in charge when he signed, Thomas Frank’s record of working with forwards should excite the teenager. Frank developed Ivan Toney, Yoane Wissa, Ollie Watkins and Bryan Mbeumo during his time at Brentford.
Melia’s nascent career has been building towards this moment and he possesses the raw materials to thrive at Tottenham. In January, his chance will arrive.
Additional reporting: Elias Burke