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Tottenham Hotspur are interested in a deal to bring Alexis Mac Allister to north London in the January transfer window.
That’s according to a recent report by Italian media outlet L’Interista, who claim that Spurs, Juventus and Atletico Madrid are all tracking the Brighton & Hove Albion central midfielder ahead of the winter market.
And, considering just how impressive the 23-year-old has been for Argentina in the Qatar World Cup, it is not difficult to understand why Europe’s elite are keen.
Indeed, the £34m-rated talent has played a key role in La Albiceleste’s run to the final, scoring one goal – the first in a 2-0 group stage win over Poland – and creating one big chance – also in the victory over Poland – over his five fixtures in the competition.
The £50k-per-week midfielder particularly impressed in Argentina’s 3-0 win over Croatia in the semi-final on Tuesday, enjoying 56 touches of the ball, completing 30 of his 36 attempted passes – at a success rate of 83% – and finding his man with two of his three attempted long balls.
The Brighton starlet also caught the eye in more workmanlike metrics, with Mac Allister also making one tackle, one interception and winning three duels – largely keeping Croatia talisman Luka Modrić quiet for the duration of the 90 minutes – in addition to winning two free-kicks for his country.
This performance saw the 23-year-old earn a considerable amount of praise, with former central midfield maestro Roy Keane going as far as to compare the Argentine to England’s Jude Bellingham during ITV’s coverage of the semi-final:
“What I like about him is the timing, drifting in there, we see him do this week in, week out. Getting himself in the right positions, reading the game, football intelligence and knowing where the ball is going to go.
“He’s definitely growing. He’s new to international football. We love to see this, we were praising Bellingham for it earlier in the tournament for this type of play.
“We don’t often see this from the modern midfielder. Showing his quality and getting better and better as the tournament goes on. Consider he didn’t start the tournament.”
Indeed, Mac Allister has proven over his 14 Premier League fixtures this season that he is a midfielder who can do it all in the middle of the park, having scored five goals and created one big chance for his teammates, in addition to taking an average of 1.9 shots, making 0.9 key passes and completing 0.6 dribbles per game.
The former AA Argentinos Juniors starlet has also made an average of 3.1 tackles – the joint ninth-most in the league – 1.4 interceptions and won 5.8 duels – at a success rate of 59% – per match, in addition to enjoying an average of 72.9 touches, playing 2.2 long balls and completing 51.1 passes – at a success rate of 89% – per outing.
These returns have seen the player who Gary Lineker dubbed “sumptuous” average a quite breathtaking Sofascore match rating of 7.31, not only ranking him as Brighton’s best performer in the league but also as the tenth-best player in the English top flight as a whole in 2022/23.
As such, should Fabio Paratici be able to get a deal over the line for the 23-year-old in January, not only would the Tottenham sporting director look to have sealed the signing of a complete midfielder, but he could well have unearthed Spurs’ very own Bellingham-esque talent in the middle of the park – something that is sure to be an exciting prospect for all involved with the club.
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