London born professional footballer Armando Shashoua was a player who excelled for Spurs at Academy level, during his time at the club. The younger brother of another former Spurs Academy player – Samuel Shashoua. With his low centre of gravity, skill, excellent close ball control and outstanding work off the ball, Armando is also a leader on the pitch, as he showed for Spurs at Academy level so often over the years. After joining Spurs on a full-time basis in the summer of 2017, Armando worked his way up the ranks at the club, at Academy level. He was a regular and important player for the Spurs Under 18 side, during his two seasons as a scholar at the club, and during his second season of scholarship at Spurs, Armando was the captain of the Spurs Under 18 side. He would later progress to the Spurs Under 23 side, and he finished the 2019/20 season as the top scorer of the Spurs Under 23 side, despite leaving the club in the January of that season, to join Spanish third tier side Atlético Baleares, on loan to the end of that season. After making some appearances for Atlético Baleares during that 2019/20 season, Armando would leave Spurs to join the team from Mallorca, in the summer of 2020 on a permanent transfer. Following in his brother Samuel’s footsteps, after he had already played for Atlético Baleares.

Armando did really well, in my opinion during the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons for Atlético Baleares, and he has improved even further in his all-round game. He made 51 competitive appearances for Atlético Baleares during his time in Mallorca, scoring four goals from those appearances. Armando played in a number of different roles on the pitch, during his time at Atlético Baleares. Impressing with Atlético Baleares over the past two seasons, Armando impressed with his ability to bring the ball forward at pace and with great skill from midfield, while starting matches in that position. Armando also played in the CAM role, where once again he linked the play really well, showed his ability to glide past players, as well as working really hard off the ball. He has always been a very clever player, who never stops running and impressing with his movement off the ball, and at Spurs he was a player who I always thought would achieve great things in the game. 

During the 2021/22 season the former Spurs Academy player was a very important player for Atlético Baleares, as they achieved great things in the Spanish Copa del Rey, with Atlético Baleares reaching the round of 16 of the competition that season, having entered it at the first round stage. Armando started his former club’s round of 16 game against Valencia, completing 90 minutes of their 1-0 home loss to Valencia. After two seasons of good strides with Atlético Baleares in the league and cup, the 21 year old midfielder signed for Spanish LaLiga 2 side UD Ibiza last month, on a contract for the next three seasons with Ibiza. Ibiza finished in 15th place in LaLiga 2 last season, and I am sure that Armando will help to improve the side further, as he steps up to play second tier football in Spain, in a very competitive league. I still watch a lot of Armando’s matches, since he left Spurs, and it has been great to see him get better and better in his all-round game. Armando played for UD Ibiza yesterday, against his brother Samuel’s side CD Tenerife, although I don’t believe that Samuel featured in that game. However, hopefully both brothers will feature in the two fixtures involving Ibiza and Tenerife in LaLiga2, this season (2022/23).

I would like to wish the very consistent Armando Shashoua a very successful season, in 2022/23, with Ibiza. He should already be very proud of all that he has achieved in the game, so far.