Ireland's Yang Min-hyuk Express hopeful Melia Jock won the competition with Tottenham, as many as five teams

Feb 05, 2025

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Tottenham Hotspur Chairman Daniel Levy's 'Preoccupying the Top 10 Prospects' is out again.

This time, Mason Melia (18), who can be called `Ireland's Yang Min-hyuk', was recruited dramatically. Competition was fierce as there was an evaluation of being Ireland's best prospect. Tottenham became the final winner in the competition with as many as five teams.

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Tottenham announced on the 5th (Korea time) that it had recruited striker Melia from St. Patrick's in the Irish Premier League Division (Part 1). It is the last piece of the power-enhancing puzzle collected by Tottenham in the January transfer market.

There are many interesting things about this contract. For now, Melia signed a contract until 2031, but it will be possible to join Tottenham from January 1, 2026. Under the Brexit rules, you must be 18 years old to officially join the English Premier League (EPL) club.

Broadly speaking, he signed a contract last summer, but it is a similar case to Yang Min-hyuk, who joined Tottenham in December after the end of the season.

In addition, Melia was recorded as the first player in the Irish Premier League Division (first division) to have a transfer fee of over 1 million pounds. He signed a contract to pay an additional option for 1.6 million pounds (about 2.8 billion won) for Tottenham's transfer fee. According to the British media TBR Football, it can increase up to 3.3 million pounds (about 6 billion won).

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Melia deserves to call it the Irish version of Yang Min-hyuk. Melia, who joined the St. Patrick's youth team in 2022, immediately moved up to the first team in January 2023 at the age of 15. And immediately, he set a record for the youngest participation in the team through the Cup. In July, he also scored his league debut goal, breaking the team's youngest score record.

Over the next two seasons, he appeared in a total of 54 games and scored 10 goals. In October 2024, he was selected for Ireland's under-21 team. It can be seen as the best rising star Ireland has ever produced.

Thanks to this growth, not only Tottenham but also many clubs have pushed for recruitment.

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TBR Football reported that Tottenham had to compete with as many as five clubs to sign Melia. They are all great big clubs. They are similar to or far ahead of Tottenham in terms of size, fame and performance. Irish football reporter David Snead posted on his social media that `Manchester City, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Celtic and Everton targeted Melia. In particular, Manchester City tried to recruit Melia last year as well.

But the final winner was Tottenham. More precisely, it can be attributed to the choice of Melia rather than to Tottenham's victory. It was a possible result because Melia's favorite club was Tottenham.

This article was translated by Naver AI translator.

Ireland's Yang Min-hyuk Express hopeful Melia Jock won the competition with Tottenham, as many as five teams

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