James Maddison has revealed that he went to YouTube to check on the highlights of Guglielmo Vicario in the summer, admitting that he had not heard of the Italian prior to joining Tottenham Hotspur.
Although Vicario had emerged as one of the best goalkeepers in Serie A over the course of his two seasons at Empoli, he was still a relatively unknown quantity to most Premier League fans when he arrived at Tottenham to become Hugo Lloris‘ successor.
In fact, it is fair to say that a lot of Spurs fans were not particularly excited about the Italian’s arrival, being quite miffed at the time that the club did not get a deal for David Raya over the line.
However, the 27-year-old has had an outstanding start to his Tottenham career and has quickly become a fan favourite in his first few months at the North London club.
(Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)
Maddison was unaware of who Vicario was
Maddison was in the same boat as most of us, revealing that he had not heard of Vicario, and the midfielder remarked that the former Empoli man is very difficult to score past in training.
The England international was asked about Vicario in an interview with former keeper Ben Foster on Amazon Prime Video: “I hadn’t obviously signed yet. I was like, who is he? Kind of thing. I’ve never heard of him.
“I’m in the back of the car on his YouTube Vicario highlights to see if he is any good.
When asked by Foster if what he saw was decent, he added: “They were alright to be fair, brilliant shot stopper. That’s the one thing I think he’s hard to score past. Sometimes we’ll practise penalties and stuff and shooting in training, I want him in goal because he’s the hardest to score past.”
When @SpursOfficial signed Guglielmo Vicario, @Madders10 had to look him up on YouTube! 😂 @BenFoster
Maddison's team-mates face West Ham this Thursday LIVE on Prime Video in the UK 📺 pic.twitter.com/eD8F0TTGaX
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) December 4, 2023
Spurs Web Opinion
Vicario appears to be a goalkeeper’s goalkeeper in the sense that everyone who has played in the position seems to have an especially high opinion of him.
The likes of Gianluigi Buffon, Mark Schwarzer and Thomas Sorensen have all waxed lyrical about him and now Foster has also said that he has been a cut above the other goalkeepers in the Premier League.
That is a sign that we potentially have a special talent on our hands. The Tottenham recruitment team deserves huge credit for securing services of the 27-year-old.
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