Ryan Sessegnon, a gem of a player, was recognised as a talent from his teenage years and was noticed by top Premier League clubs.
With a dynamic style of play reminiscent of former Wales international Gareth Bale, combined with his position as a left-back at the time, he looked set for big things.
In 2019, he moved from Fulham to Tottenham Hotspur. At the club, also based in London, he was expected to follow the same path as Bale, but did not get the development he expected and returned to Fulham in the summer of 2024 when his contract expired.
Two years before his move to Tottenham, Liverpool were keeping a close eye on the transfer market for a left-back.
Sessegnon was one of their targets, but they eventually snapped up Andy Robertson from Hull City, who had been relegated from the Premier League.
The Scotland captain, now a world-class left-back, is a moment that proves Liverpool’s acumen: in his thirties, he is starting to tire, but remains an important first-team member.
In what has been a very contrasting career, the 24-year-old former prodigy has revealed how he moved to Tottenham Hotspur. He revealed that he made the jump to the competitive club because he was convinced that playing under Pochettino would benefit him.
“So Tottenham were chasing me for a number of years, and I knew that [Mauricio] Pochettino at the time wanted me a lot,”
“Once I kind of saw that Tottenham were really pushing to sign me, that’s when I thought ‘you know what’. And they’d just got to the Champions League final the year before when they lost against Liverpool.”
“So I thought me as a young player working under Pochettino, it was probably the right time to go there and work under him – so I decided to make the jump there.”
“I knew what teams were after me that season we got relegated in the Premier League. From there, it was just about kind of choosing where I wanted to go.”
“And yeah, that’s how I chose Tottenham. Obviously my agent told me about all the things behind the scenes with the club, and how they wanted to sign me. All that kind of stuff.”
the Rising Ballers podcast