JAPHET TANGANGA appears to have taken to first-team football like a duck to water, but the 20-year-old has revealed that he was moved to tears on the morning of his Premier League debut.
Having only previously featured in the League Cup tie at Colchester back in September, Tanganga was thrust into the limelight when Jose Mourinho handed him a shock start against Liverpool last month.
And despite Spurs’ narrow 1-0 defeat that evening, the England youth international earned praise from pundits for his composed performance against the best team in the country.
Despite playing fearlessly, Tanganga has revealed that being thrown into the starting XI moved him to tears on the morning of the match.
He told Tottenham’s official matchday programme: “I cried before the Liverpool game, when I made my debut. They were just tears of joy and it was just overwhelming.
“I was sitting in my room and it came out but then I was like, ‘come on, fix up, you have a game today’, so I got up, showered and got ready.
“I had just been waiting for that moment to get my opportunity, my dad had been waiting for it too and it just hit me.
“If you had told me a week before the Liverpool game that I would have been playing, I would have laughed.
“Things have changed so much.”
Tanganga has been at Spurs since he was ten years old, and while he has had to remain patient for his chance in the first-team, the youngster has grabbed it by the scruff of the neck.
Since that Prem debut against Liverpool, he has also featured in subsequent league matches against Watford and Manchester City – as well as FA Cup clashes with Middlesbrough and Southampton.
As well as Juan Foyth, one of those that Tanganga appears to have overtaken in the pecking order is club stalwart Jan Vertonghen.
The decorated 32-year-old, who has played 307 times for the Lilywhites, was on the verge of tears after being substituted against the Saints last night – with Mourinho opting to keep Tanganga on the field instead.
