Three Tottenham academy stars to watch out for in 2024

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The Tottenham Hotspur academy has produced one of the greatest footballers of all time in recent years.

Harry Kane came through the Spurs ranks to become a club legend going on to shine at Bayern Munich, as well as becoming England’s all-time highest goalscorer and captain.

Tottenham’s youth setup has recently also produced other players that are enjoying solid careers at Spurs or elsewhere, such as Oliver Skipp and Harry Winks.

With 2024 now upon us, who could be the next players to graduate from the Tottenham academy and go on to shine? The Boot Room takes a look at three outstanding Spurs talents.

Alfie Dorrington

Alfie Dorrington, an 18-year-old defender, has played a significant part in Tottenham’s perfect start to the Premier League 2 season.

The 6ft 5in powerhouse has played in all nine of Spurs Under-21s’ league games, keeping five clean sheets en route to nine wins out of nine.

Dorrington has been at Tottenham for five years and has quickly risen through the ranks. He was promoted to the Under-21s last year and already looks a cut above.

Football.london‘s Alasdair Gold, speaking on a Q&A earlier this season, said Dorrington is a “terrific young defender”.

Meanwhile, Tottenham youth team expert Superhotspur described the player as a “tall centre-half with skill on the ball that is so good that he could easily play in midfield.”

Superhotspur added: “Alfie is in my opinion one of the very best footballing centre-halves that I have ever seen in the Spurs Academy set-up.”

Dorrington is yet to make his debut, but surely an FA Cup appearance or an outing in the latter stages of the league season is on the cards. Then, we could perhaps see an EFL loan next term.

Rio Kyerematen

Rio Kyerematen is an 18-year-old midfielder who earned promotion to the Under-21s ahead of the 2023-24 season.

The youngster joined Tottenham when he was eight and has progressed through the ranks to get to the fringes of the Spurs first-team.

In the last two seasons, Kyerematen registered some impressive statistics at Under-18 level.

In 2022-23, he grabbed five goals and seven assists from 17 outings, and in 2021-22, he managed seven goals and four assists from 27 outings.

Last year, Superhotspur wrote: “A versatile midfield player who can play as a defensive-midfielder, a central-midfielder and as a CAM, Rio Kyerematen is highly skilful on the ball.

“The player… is very capable of going past players with great skill, and he likes to go on surging and skilful forward runs with the ball from midfield.”

Antonio Conte promoted Kyerematen to first-team training when he was just 16 years old and Ange Postecoglou has been doing the same this season.

As per Dorrington, he’s yet to make his Spurs debut, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him handed his maiden appearance at some point, before an EFL loan next term.

Jamie Donley

Jamie Donley, an 18-year-old attacker, has already made his debut for Tottenham. Indeed, he has made two senior appearances for Spurs.

The youngster came off the bench in the Premier League meetings with Manchester City and Newcastle United in December.

It was a just reward for a player who has been posting outstanding numbers for the Under-21s this term. Namely, six goals and 12 assists from just 12 appearances.

Back in November 2021, Superhotspur wrote: “Personally Jamie reminds me very much of Troy Parrott at the same age.

“In how creative he is with the ball and also his willingness to drop deep to get on the ball to try and create chances, even in these very early days.”

A versatile player, Donley has featured in a variety of positions this season. He has played as an attacking midfielder, a second striker, a centre-forward and even a left-winger.

Dean Jones told GiveMeSport in October that Tottenham insiders think the ‘amazing‘ talent will break into the first-team in the coming months.

“It’s early days but sources around Spurs believe there is a genuine chance he gets lift off this season,” he said.

“It might not be too long until there’s a new chant around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium: ‘Jamie Donley, he’s one of our own!’”

It’ll be interesting to see whether Donley sticks around at Hotspur Way for the rest of the season or whether Postecoglou opts to send him out on loan to an EFL team for first-team experience.