View: Dante Cassanova signs first professional deal with Tottenham despite injury struggles

Tottenham have officially announced that Dante Cassanova has signed his first professional contract with the club.

The club confirmed via their official website on Friday (14 July) that the 19-year-old had put pen to paper on his professional deal.

It is a well-deserved step for the young player who recently returned from injury at the back end of last season to make three appearances for the Under-21s.

Cassanova started as a full-time scholar with the club during the summer of 2020 and made his first appearance in a Spurs shirt at the age of 16 in an Under-18 Premier League fixture on 11 January 2020.

He started that day as a right-back and helped his side to keep a clean sheet during a 1-0 win over Brighton but since then has gone on to demonstrate great versatility, also featuring as a defensive midfielder and central midfielder on various occasions.

The versatile youngster is just as comfortable in either position, playing eight times as a defensive midfielder, eight times as a central midfielder and seven times as a right-back in his short career so far (Transfermarkt).

Although his season was disrupted by injury last year, the club clearly maintain faith in his potential as shown by his new contract and fans will be eager to see if the prospect can make an impact under new boss Ange Postecoglou.

The Australian has a strong track record of developing and promoting young talent and with many exciting youngsters putting pen to paper in recent weeks at Spurs, it will be interesting to see how many of these emerging talents can crack the first-team squad next season.

One thing is for sure, fans can expect a much better connection between the first team and the academy than they have seen in recent years and Cassanova's new deal is another example of that.

In other Tottenham news, Manor Solomon could prove to be the surprise signing of the summer.