If any more proof were needed that Tottenham Hotspur are heading in the right direction under Ange Postecoglou, it came on deadline day when they pipped Barcelona to the signing of Swedish wonderkid Lucas Bergvall from Djurgardens.
Bergvall, an 18-year-old central midfielder, had looked destined to move to Catalonia, even taking in a tour of Camp Nou before having his head swivelled by Spurs’ interest. Xavi’s shock announcement that he would leave in the summer planted a seed of doubt in Bergvall’s mind and Spurs duly swooped.
The teenager, who has already been capped once by Sweden, ended up joining Spurs in a deal worth £8.5m plus add-ons on his 18th birthday and will spend the rest of this campaign in Stockholm before linking up with Postecoglou’s squad for pre-season.
“It was a very difficult choice, it was 50-50 for a very long time, but it felt like the next step for me was Tottenham,” Bergvall told Sport Bladet.” It was not very easy to say no to Barcelona, it took a very long time to decide. It was a tough decision.”
As was the case with Radu Dragusin, who was wanted by Bayern Munich, Spurs beat a European superpower to a coveted young prospect.
Considering the interest that Bergvall generated, Spurs rightly regard his acquisition as a coup. “We want to be a destination for the best young talent out there,” said technical director Johan Lange on Thursday.
“He will join in the summer and be part of the first team squad but then it’s just for him to adapt to this new environment and take things step by step.”
Bergvall started his career at IF Brommapojkarna (BP), a small Stockholm-based club that has one of the best youth academies in Scandinavia, if not Europe.
Spurs winger Dejan Kulusevski was on BP’s books before leaving for Atalanta at the age of 16, while Viktor Gyokeres, the Sporting Lisbon striker linked with Arsenal and Chelsea last month, began his career there.
Bergvall, alongside brother Theo who is a year older, progressed through the ranks at BP before both ending up at Djurgardens a year apart. Lucas made his first-team debut at just 15 in 2021.
Andreas Engelmark is BP’s first-team coach and former academy director who has worked with numerous prospects who have gone on to earn big moves and international caps.
“When I first met him he was 10 or 11 years old and I could see he was a motivated, happy guy who loved the game,” Engelmark tells i. “That was the most important thing that he enjoyed playing. You could see that and that he wanted to learn.
“At that age, it’s always difficult to tell whether he would go on to be a Premier League player or do something else with his life you never know. I went to the [United] States for two years but when I came back to Sweden in 2019 he had improved and become a very dominant player.
“He made his debut when he was only 15 years old. The next season he got playing some games. We were in the second-highest division at the time and we won the league that season and he played a few important games and did really well. You could see he was at the level and after the season he was sold to Djurgardens.”
Engelmark says Bergvall is “very highly regarded” in his homeland and has a “very high ceiling” – but what sort of player can Spurs fans expect to see?
“First of all he has an incredible mentality where he wants to improve all the time. It doesn’t matter if he’s at BP or Djurgardens or the national team, he’s going to go out there and try to do his best. That’s his main attribute.
“In terms of his skillset, he’s good with the ball. He’s a good passer, he can drive with the ball. He’s pretty complete in that way. He has the physicality to be a good ball-winner as well but I think that’s something he needs to be more consistent with to take his game to the next level.
“I think his best position is as a No 8 and we will see in the next few years if he sticks with that position or is going to become more of a 6.”
There have been tentative comparisons made to Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong, who he could have played alongside had things worked out differently. It is a resemblance that Engelmark can see, although he insists Bergvall needs to become “more powerful defensively”.
At Tottenham, his main positional rival is likely to Pape Matar Sarr, rather than James Maddison. The 21-year-old has been one of the Premier League’s breakthrough acts in 2023-24 and his emergence will no doubt give Bergvall encouragement that he can make a similar impact.
Engelmark is eager to point out the “huge step” between Sweden’s Allsvenskan and the Premier League and believes Bergvall will take time to adapt to playing a higher level of football and living in a different country. “You need to be patient with a young guy like that.”
But he is also confident that Bergvall will eventually be well-suited to Postecoglou’s relentless, attack-minded style of play.
“I think it would suit him,” he says. “He’s a high-energy player and wants to be the on the ball all the time and do something with it.”
Tottenham’s commitment to building a dynamic new team is evident from their transfer business in recent windows which has seen them recruit players predominantly in the 16-23 age bracket.
The early signs are extremely encouraging with a nucleus of young talent coming to the fore. The hope will be that Bergvall can become the next big thing to make the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium his playground.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/Q7mC2Bx
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