Mathys Tel hasn’t exactly produced his best form since swapping Bayern Munich for Tottenham in January 2025.
The 20-year-old signed initially on loan before making the move permanent in the summer after helping the team win the Europa League during the 2024/25 campaign. Tel made 20 appearances for Tottenham last season, scoring three goals and claiming as many assists.
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At the start of this season, Tel missed a penalty as Tottenham lost the Super Cup Final to PSG, and that has put a real downer on his season so far, with regular football hard to come by for the Frenchman.
It would appear as though that particular game put a real downer on his confidence, and now he’s been discussing the missed spot-kick during a recent interview on his time with Tottenham so far.
Mathys Tel had sleepless nights after Tottenham penalty miss
Tel wasn’t the only Tottenham player to miss in the 6-5 defeat to PSG, with Micky van de Ven also having his effort saved.
However, the youngster struggled to wrap his head around the incident and admitted that he endured sleepless nights after failing to find the target in the shootout.
The Tottenham forward has been speaking to the Zack En Roue Libre podcast about the incident and admits he’s found it difficult to bounce back.
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Tel said: “My brother is there right after the game. He manages my social media accounts.
“He says to me: ‘Dude, don’t turn on your phone.’ I, like an idiot, turned it on
“Sometimes you have to make a mistake to understand it’s a mistake, but at the time, it was not wise.
“I had already taken some time for myself. At that point, I was really in a heavy state. This isn’t just a small thing. No, it’s not a small thing. So many negative emotions -the very same evening, I couldn’t sleep, it was more than that, I was with my brother, yeah, trying to make sense of all this. I had really gone deep. It was crazy, it was intense.
“The next morning, people from Tottenham were outside my apartment. It looked like I was sick.
“They came by, knocked, and asked if I was okay. ‘Are you okay? Are you okay?’ You know? They said they’d handle the social media side because it had gotten out of control.
“I didn’t respond properly. My brother told me, and my mother, too, she called me directly. And then the Tottenham people came the next day. They told me, “It’s serious.” And after seeing it all, I realised it was even worse than what I had experienced at Bayern during the Super Cup.
“So there I was, in bed, thinking, wow, it’s too much, it’s overwhelming.
“My team and I discussed it, stayed up all night, I think for a week – I couldn’t sleep. My eyes were red. I kept saying, ‘I’m fine,’ even though I wasn’t. I’m someone who always has to say ‘I’m fine,’ even when I’m not. I told myself, “It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay.”
Tel has to find some form at Tottenham
Although Tel has struggled this season, he has bags of time to fulfil his potential, with the player still only 20.
Tottenham need all hands to the pump in their current situation and Tel needs to start stepping up and adding a few goals to his game in the final games of the season.
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Any player is capable of missing a penalty kick and he needs to shake off that experience and start to hit his straps in the Premier League.
Tottenham have been woefully bad in front of goal this season and now they need Tel to showcase to everyone exactly what he’s capable of.