As Tottenham Hotspur prepare for Wednesday evening’s Europa League final against Manchester United in Bilbao, a mix of friends, family, former coaches and team-mates offer unique insight into the squad determined to end a 17-year trophy drought.
Son Heung-min
Kevin Wimmer, friend and former team-mate at Spurs
Early on in my time at Spurs, I remember Allan Dixon, our team manager, telling me the club were signing another German-speaking player and asking if I could help him settle. I was expecting a German or maybe another Austrian, but of course it was Sonny.
I knew him from the Bundesliga but not on a personal level, but from that first day you could see that he was such an amazing guy. The mood in the team for sure with him is much better than without him because he brings this positive energy and is always joking. Of course, he can be serious as well, but most of the time, when it’s not on the pitch, he’s always happy and making jokes. The impact he has is even more obvious now he’s captain, I think.
We were together at Tottenham for two years and we spent nearly every day together. We’d play PlayStation after training, sometimes go out for dinner. His parents lived with him at the time; I would go to their house and his mom would cook for both of us — she always took care of me like I was family.
Sometimes in football when you change clubs, you lose contact with old team-mates but that was just the start of our friendship, and will still speak regularly to this day. I visited him in London earlier this season, and we were messaging towards the end of the Bodo/Glimt game when it was obvious Spurs were going to the final.
I know it would be a dream come true for Sonny if he can win this trophy with Spurs. He has been at the club for so many years and done an amazing job. He has always sacrificed himself for the team. I will be watching from my holiday in Bali — it would mean so much for him to win it, and I really, really hope he does.
Cristian Romero
Miguel Veloso, team-mate at Genoa
I remember Cuti arriving at Genoa in 2018 as a 20-year-old kid, coming to a new country, a new culture, and a new language for him. But he came with a lot of personality and character — a kid who worked hard every single day. He was training with us in the first team but the coach, Davide Ballardini, had him playing with the Primavera (youth team).
But when Ivan Juric came in as coach in October, his first game was against Juventus, and he put Cuti straight into the first XI for the first time.
He played extremely well, and from there he played all the games for us. I always believed he could achieve big, big things because he has a strong character, and personality on the ball.
When he moved to Juventus I couldn’t believe they didn’t play him, but when he went to Atalanta I knew that with Gian Piero Gasperini he would become a top, top centre-back. I am very happy for his success. When we played together, I had a connection with him because he was a good kid, a good person, and a leader by example.
I am happy and proud for him to have the success that he deserves.
James Maddison
Steven Pressley, manager at Coventry City
There have been very few players that I can honestly say I’ve seen play just once before knowing they’re going to be a top player. But I could see from the moment I laid eyes on James that he was something special.
From his first session training with the first team he had that confidence, that belief, where he wanted to control the game even as the youngest player on the pitch. He already had that special ingredient of being able to actually control the tempo of a game. You see it in him all the time now — he can take the game from a slow phase into really quick football. When you see him taking responsibility as one of the senior players at Spurs, that’s exactly the character he was as a 16-year-old, dealing with much older team-mates. He would be taking a grip of training sessions, wanting the ball, setting the tempo.
I never felt that I needed to influence the technical aspects of his game a great deal — he already had all of those attributes. The areas I felt we could help him were his mindset, and his understanding of what it takes to be a professional, an elite player. That was where I was able to influence him most.
There was one time — I can’t remember exactly what he had done, I think maybe he hadn’t cleaned the dressing room or boots properly — but his punishment was cleaning my car. It was just about installing those standards into James, making him understand what it takes to be a real football player, about every minute of every day living that life, not cutting corners. He’s really developed into a terrific player and a terrific young man. And behind that, he had a great family which I think is really important for every young player. I’m proud to see him get to the top.
Pape Matar Sarr
Go Sarr, coach at Wally Daan FC in Thies, Senegal
Pape came to my training centre in Thies from the age of four. And from an early age, we saw he had certain attributes that meant it was possible that he could reach the very top.
The first quality of Pape Matar Sarr is mental. He does not play with pressure. It doesn’t matter if things go against his team, he finds a way to pick the team up. He’s so positive: I must pass, I must win, I must play, I must progress. The second quality is psychological: his tactical reading of the game. He understands what to do and when. He sees what is happening and interprets it in an intelligent manner. And he has an unbelievable running ability to keep going, an innate quality that makes him an extremely good runner from midfield. You can see that quite a lot with Spurs when he brings the ball out, has really good endurance as well, a very good base level of fitness and running ability.
Senegal is proud and happy to see one of our sons playing in the final of the Europa League, the first from Senegal. It was Sadio Mane who played in the Champions League final in 2019, and Pape Matar is the second Senegalese, inshallah, who will play in a final of the Europa League, also a prestigious European competition. Senegal is happy. The town of Thies is happy. The family is happy. And we are happy.
We pray for a Tottenham victory.
Archie Gray
A letter from cousin Nick Gray
Dear Archie,
The Leeds fan in me was beyond gutted when you left the club last year and made the move to Tottenham. We knew we were losing our prized asset and one of our top players. But as a proud family member, I knew that even at such a young age you needed and wanted to test yourself at the highest level and against the best players in the world.
Little did we know that, less than a year later, you would find yourself in a major European final and within 90 minutes of securing the first major piece of silverware of your career.
I can’t tell you how proud myself and all the family are of you and all that you have achieved in your career to date. It’s testament to your character and to your ability as a player that you have been able to adjust so quickly to life in the Premier League and to European competition, especially as you have had to play much of the season outside of your preferred midfield role.
It seems like only yesterday that you were playing in the back garden at Eddie and Linda’s with the rest of the kids, trying to get the better of your cousins and brothers and always giving 100 per cent to get one over on them. No doubt some of these games were almost as competitive as the games you find yourself playing in now, and you’ll be glad to hear that nothing has changed! Only last Sunday, your two youngest brothers came to blows in the very same garden over a ‘mistimed’ tackle and had to be pulled apart before a full-scale brawl ensued. We wouldn’t have it any other way!
From back-garden games to Elland Road, and now onto Bilbao for this final, it all seems to have happened in a blur.
Myself and all the family will be watching on next Wednesday with great pride and will be hoping you manage to get the win. But win or lose, know that we are all incredibly proud of you. Proud of the career you are forging for yourself, proud of all of your achievements as a player, of which I’m sure there will be many, many more, but most of all proud of the man you have become and the way you conduct yourself on and off the pitch.
It’s not too often I find myself cheering for another club side other than Leeds United, but I will certainly be making an exception next week. Best of luck Archie, we’re all behind you!
From Nick and all the Gray family.
Pedro Porro
Filipe Çelikkaya, coach at Sporting CP
The first time I met Pedro was when he came to Sporting CP when he was 20. He came to be a very important piece at Sporting during his time there. Everyone liked him a lot because of his amazing personality, always with a smile on his face. He had all the ingredients for success: he was a very hard worker, he was really humble, he was ready to listen.
He had quality in the final third, and intensity that he put into every challenge. He was playing as wing-back, in a different system from other teams in Portugal. The challenge for him was to take that responsibility. I think it was very good for him. We saw him evolving during his first season, understanding what the coach asked him to do better. It was the stage and the place that he needed to go to the next level, and the next level was the top level, the Premier League.
Of course, it is interesting for us that on Wednesday he will face Ruben Amorim, the coach who signed him for Sporting..
Everyone at Sporting is happy for Pedro and wishes him all the best. I know the players here still miss him a lot. We are always proud when any player who has passed through our club has success in his career.
Micky van de Ven
Wim Jonk, coach at Volendam
I first saw Mickey when he was 18, playing for Volendam Under-19s. We saw some strengths — his physical ability was so high, but there was also so much to grow.
Mickey, when he started, was sometimes lazy. We brought some focus to him. He needed to develop some other things, not just rely on his pace and physical ability. As a defender at the top level, you have to be two steps in front, being alert on every small detail. Sometimes he was a bit, ‘I can do that tomorrow’. You have to do it today as well!
The player must make the decision. We as coaches can have a good plan, we can help him, we can speak with him — and we did all that a lot. But most of it must come from the player himself. He has to focus on every small detail. And that’s what he now does all the time.
Sometimes I give him a call, to help him, to check his focus still in the right place. I see a lot of him and he’s so focused now these days. I’m so happy for him, and so proud that he is playing in this kind of game.
Radu Dragusin
Svetlana Simion, mother
Radu was always a very good boy; he was always either at school, at football practice, or back home doing his homework. His two big dreams were to be a footballer and to get good marks at school!
He was about seven when he started to play football. And since then, other than a small injury he had before going to Juventus, and the surgery he had this season, he did not miss one practice, for any reason.
I played basketball for the Romanian national team, and won the European Championship. Radu’s father, Dan, was a volleyball player, who played at the national level. So Radu has good genes for sport.
That knee injury (in January), was a shock for us all because it was his first serious injury. But Radu is very strong mentally, he realised that he will come back stronger than before. His recovery is amazing, and he’s working very, very hard.
Everybody is very excited for the final, we keep our fingers crossed. Part of the family will be there, part will be in front of the TV. I will not be in Bilbao because that day my mother, Radu’s grandmother, turns 80. We will have a celebration, then we are all going to watch it on TV.
This is the beauty of team sport. It doesn’t matter if you play or don’t play, if you’re injured, it’s a big, big family. I always feel like being in sports is being in a second family. Because you spend more time practising and on the field than you spend at home. The team is the second family for us. It will be a good game. I hope we are going to be winners.
Let’s go Spurs!
Dominic Solanke
Dan Du-Heaume, teacher at Brighton Hill Community School
When Dom joined our school at the age of 11, we found out from his primary school that he had been at Chelsea’s youth academy from a very young age. We had a pretty good idea that he must be a talented footballer, but we didn’t realise just how good he was until we saw him play.
I was his PE teacher for those first three years. I would love to be able to tell you he learned it all from me, but that was absolutely not the case. He was a natural. He wasn’t a trickster, but he had such poise and grace on the ball. He had this ability to take the ball past three or four players and then just lay it off for a team-mate so that they could take the glory. He was such a gracious, humble boy.
That was one of the striking things about Dom. He was living a different life to his classmates, training with Chelsea, going away with England to play in various tours and tournaments. You sometimes hear of a stereotypical “prima donna footballer” attitude when they join one of the big academies, but Dom was always so down to earth. He would mix with all sorts of different characters and get on with all of them.
He was such a good team-mate and such a good pupil. He was so quiet and so focused. He wasn’t especially academic, but he worked hard and he was never in trouble.
As things got more and more serious for him at Chelsea, it became that he needed to be in a school closer to there. He left us at the end of year nine, but we have followed his career — from Chelsea to Liverpool to Bournemouth and now with Tottenham and England — with great interest and great satisfaction. His success resonates with the pupils and teachers here.
My only regret is that I didn’t take the opportunity to put a bet on him playing for England one day. I was pretty sure he would.
Richarlison
A letter from Guilherme Xavier, former team-mate at America
Querido Richarlison,
I can still remember your first training session with the first team at America in Minas Gerais. I knew how good you were but some of the older guys? They couldn’t believe it. You surprised everyone with your strength and your intelligence. And you have repeated that trick so many times throughout your career.
I’ll never forget all the time we spent together in the youth team. Not just on the training pitch but in the dorm rooms, talking about the future and giggling at stupid jokes. I liked you because you were a simple guy, very honest. There was no ego, even when bigger clubs started calling your agent. You were pure, one of life’s good guys.
Even in those early days, I thought you’d go far. I was probably even more confident of it than you were, to be honest. You weren’t just a natural on the pitch; you were such a hard worker. Nothing else mattered to you. You knew when to joke around but when the whistle blew, you were a picture of focus. That intensity made you the player you are today.
I know you’ve been through some tough moments in the last couple of years. I saw you crying in an interview, talking about your struggles with your mental health. It was really hard to watch. I’m so glad that you seem to be doing better now. You look happier, like the old Richarlison again.
We haven’t spoken for a few years now. That’s completely normal: it’s nearly a decade since we played together. But I want you to know that I’m always here for you, always in your corner. I know that winning the Europa League would be massive — for Tottenham and for you personally. I’ll be cheering you on this Wednesday.
Ben Davies
Leon Britton, team-mate at Swansea City
Ben was never one I thought was nailed-on to get into the first team at Swansea, and that’s just me being totally honest. You have to give a lot of credit to Michael Laudrup (Swansea’s manager at the time), who obviously had confidence that Ben could step up. When Neil Taylor broke his leg early in the 2012-13 season, Ben totally proved me wrong. The way he came into the team — he just settled into it like he’d been playing in the Premier League all his life.
I remember at the time Ben had a VW Polo. He had the old wind-down windows and they got jammed, so they couldn’t go up or down. Ashley Williams, our captain, said something like, ‘For f***’s sake, Ben, you’re playing in the Premier League, you can’t be driving into the stadium in that!’
A lot of players in Ben’s situation would have got a new contract and come in the next week in a brand new Mercedes, But I think it’s testament to Ben that he probably didn’t want to be seen as, ‘Oh, I’ve played five games in the Premier League — I’ve made it.’
To see where Ben is now — he’s had over 10 years at Spurs — says everything about his professionalism, his character, his personality and, of course, his ability. I’m just so chuffed for him that he’s had such an incredible career. It couldn’t happen to a better person and, hopefully, he can win a European trophy now — I’m sure that would mean more to Ben than a lot of the players because he’s been at Tottenham so long.
Brennan Johnson
Gareth Holmes, coach with Nottingham Forest Under-18s
I always remember the game when a young Brennan really came to life. He was 16 and he’d moved up to play for Forest’s under-23s. Then we played one game at Birmingham City and I came away thinking, ‘That’s the start of something special.’
Brennan was a quiet young man, but he had an inner confidence. There was an aura about him and on that day it felt like he was telling everyone, ‘This is me, I’ve grown into myself now, I know what I’m capable of.’
Even at a young age, Brennan had an incredible ability to glide with the ball and see things on the move while travelling at speed. He was always very slight as a boy and, at the age of 14, he had a difficult injury. We had to wait for his physicality to catch up with his technicality. But he had those extra levels in his locker and, with time, I always felt it was going to flourish. When it did, it was so exciting to see.
He always wanted to score goals and affect games. He had an inner bravery that we saw grow and grow over time.
I remember another game against Leicester City in the FA Youth Cup, when we went down to 10 men in the first half. Brennan didn’t get a lot of the ball after that, but he was prepared to be part of a team rather than playing as an individual. You should have seen the amount of hard work and tireless running he put in. His attitude was brilliant.
It helped that his parents, David and Alison, were excellent behind the scenes, especially with David being an ex-player and understanding how difficult it is to become a footballer. He and Alison knew the end goal for Brennan was not to become a scholar at Nottingham Forest, it was to become a professional. So they understood the hard yards he had to put in and pushed him to work hard, to be driven and single-minded.
He’s a tremendous young man from an excellent family and, very often, you find that the best footballers are the best people, too. Brennan has gone on to great things, first at Forest and now with Spurs, but he still found time to send my son a message on his eighth birthday.
Rodrigo Bentancur
Horacio Anselmi, talent scout for Boca Juniors
I was doing a lecture in Colonia Valdense in Uruguay, talking about children and football. I was looking at a match outside and there was a little boy playing against grown men, and he was fantastic. A man called Daniel Fernandez Tocci who had been with River Plate asked me if I liked the boy and how he played. I said yes, he is fantastic! I asked how old he was, expecting him to be 17. He told me that the boy was only 12!
I spoke about him in my lecture, telling the students about how to make the first steps to make the transformation from being a kid to a first-class footballer. His family spoke to me after the lecture and asked if it was possible for him to join the club I scouted for, Boca Juniors. His family were fantastic, very kind people. They later gave me a present of local specialty cheese from Colonia Valdense.
A few weeks after I found him, Rodrigo was with us in Buenos Aires, living with his aunt, and we began to transform him into the fantastic player that he is today. I always knew that he would become a top player. My job is to find sporting talents, not just in football but in track and field, weight-lifting and wrestling. So I am very happy when I saw Juan Martin Del Potro or Guillermo Coria play tennis. I remember when Coria was just a small kid from a small town, and he became number three ranked tennis player in the world.
When you see the kids you saw at 10 years old, playing at the top, winning medals, it is incredible happiness that you have. Knowing that history depends on you.
Lucas Bergvall
A letter from parents Andreas and Malin Bergvall
Dear Lucas,
Where do we even begin? From the moment you came into the world on February 2, 2006 as the middle son and beloved brother to Theo and Rasmus, you were surrounded by passion and love.
Football was a big part of your life from an early age. You were so competitive and determined from the beginning. You always made sure to eat the right foods, prioritise your sleep, and do whatever was necessary to maximise your potential — with support from mum and dad along the way.
Your love for football was absolute — you practically slept with the ball, carried it everywhere, and let it shape who you are. That passion has never faded. To this day, you remain grounded, family-oriented, and incredibly social, someone who thrives in the presence of others. You are a man of principles and integrity, steadfast in your ways, determined to do things as you see fit.
We want you to know how deeply loved you are. Your kindness, generosity, and happy attitude are part of the man you have become. Despite your young age, you have already accomplished a lot, but we know your journey is far from over and there is still so much more to come.
Your first year abroad has been incredible. Seeing you being a part of a Europa League final is surreal, an unforgettable moment for everyone who has supported you. Words cannot express how proud we are!
We wish you all the success in the world.
All the best!
Mom, Dad and your brothers xx
Ange Postecoglou
Micky Petersen, former team-mate, assistant coach and lifelong friend
Where do I start? It’s crazy, we go back to 10 or 11 years of age. He’s just a boy from Prahran in Melbourne. We played school soccer and junior soccer, and then I joined him at South Melbourne. It was the biggest club in Australia at the time. From knowing and playing with and against him at junior levels, it’s been the best part of 45 to 50 years of knowing him intimately. You know what I love, mate? He hasn’t changed as a bloke.
We’ve all got to put on different hats sometimes, whether it’s fronting up to media, the changing rooms or the board, but I caught up with him here in Australia when Tottenham played a friendly game in pre-season last year, and it was just great. We had lunch together. He’s just living his best life. He loves football; he’s a football historian. If you didn’t know, we had posters of Glenn Hoddle and Kenny Dalglish on our walls. For him to be managing a club of the ilk of Tottenham, it’s just freaking crazy. I love it. It’s kind of a dream, parallel universe thing.
The first thing that sprang to my mind when he made the final — obviously I’ve been paying attention to the narrative in England — is back in the day when Craig Johnston was playing for Liverpool and Australia. Australia wanted him to commit to the national team, and he said, ‘Playing soccer for Australia is like surfing for England.’ Soon after, Martin Potter won the world surfing championship for England. I thought, how funny is that now? An Aussie has gone to England, the home of football, and he’s on the cusp of doing something which feels like a glass ceiling moment for us Australians. It used to feel impossible.
That’s what life’s all about, isn’t it? Shocking the systems that we all think are in place. Ange has done that his whole career, and it doesn’t surprise me. Going back to our junior days, he’s always been such a student of the game. His ability to navigate all tiers of the club, whether it’s the people in the cafeteria right through to the owners, he can galvanise everyone. He’s always made the game the hero, not himself. He accepts responsibility and gives credit to the people around him in success.
We played Man United at the World Club Championship with South Melbourne 25 years ago, and the irony is just, wow. All that time later, he’s back again with Spurs taking on Man United in a European final — what a story.
What a dream for Ange and Australian football, and I know he’s encompassing Australia in his journey. We’ll be riding it hard Thursday morning for him.
Interviews: Jack Pitt-Brooke, Jay Harris, Elias Burke, Daniel Taylor, Phil Hay, Stuart James, Jack Lang, Oliver Kay, Charlie Eccleshare
