Former Spurs Academy player Noni Madueke is now playing his football for Chelsea’s first team, following a big move to the West London club from Dutch side PSV Eindhoven, in January. Madueke was with Spurs as a schoolboy Academy footballer up until the end of the 2017/18 season, when he chose not to sign scholarship forms with the club, instead opting to join PSV Eindhoven. The extremely skilful winger started his career with the Crystal Palace Academy, prior to joining Spurs’ Academy set-up. Noni progressed up through the Academy ranks at the club (I saw him play on maybe three occasions), and his creativity and excellent skill always stood out whenever I saw him play. Part of the same Academy age group as Harvey White, Madueke made his one and only appearance for the Spurs Under 18 side in a Premier League South fixture away to Aston Villa, in the February of 2017. In this fixture against Aston Villa, Spurs basically fielded an Under 16 side, because of the fact that the Spurs Under 18 side had an important FA Youth Cup quarter-final tie with Newcastle United the following mid-week.

In the game against Aston Villa, players such as Brooklyn Lyons-Foster, Jamie Bowden and Phoenix Patterson all started for Spurs, while Aston Villa had Jacob Ramsey featuring from the bench for the home side. The game finished 2-1 to Aston Villa, but quite late on in the second half Noni Madueke, a player who at the time was a member of the Spurs Under 15 side, came on to make his competitive debut for the Spurs Under 18 side. A little bit earlier on in the game, another player from the same Academy age group, Luis Binks (Now of Bologna, in Serie A) also made his debut for the Spurs Under 18 side. Binks came close to scoring during the Aston Villa game, while shortly after Madueke was substituted on, he found the back of the net, but his effort was ruled out for offside. Even in the limited time that he played in that game, Noni stood out and showed real glimpses of his quality. As did Luis Binks, who had a good game for Spurs in defence. Noni Madueke, despite spending some time out with injury, would do really well with PSV.

Returning to Hotspur Way with a PSV Under 19 side for a UEFA Youth League game in 2018, Noni Madueke did really well with PSV’s first team, prior to his return to England. And the England Under 21 international has so far made 11 Premier League appearances for Chelsea, scoring one goal.