Tottenham Hotspur’s record signing of young striker Mason Melia should be a ‘statement’ to Irish football, according to the player’s uncle and representative Clive Clarke.
Spurs confirmed the transfer of the 17-year-old St Patrick’s Athletic player on Tuesday evening with the teenager due to arrive at the club at the start of the next January transfer window, following his 18th birthday. The deal will see Spurs pay an initial fee of €1.8 million (£1.5m), rising to a possible £3.5m with a 20 percent sell on clause.
It’s a record transfer fee for a player moving out fo the League of Ireland. Speaking to RTE Radio 1 Morning Ireland, St Patrick’s manager Stephen Kenny revealed how Spurs won the race for the forward: “Garrett Kelleher, the (Pat’s) owner, was highly involved in negotiations, that’s certainly outside my remit,” he said.
“He could have gone to Italy, Germany or Belgium – he could have moved there (to those countries) this year or last year – but he got the move that he wanted. I think the move to Tottenham is the one that he really wanted.”
Melia is the nephew of former Premier League and Republic of Ireland left-back Clive Clarke, who also represents the player. He also revealed how Spurs beat off competition for the transfer.
“It’s through Mason’s hard work that it has been able to happen,” Clarke told RTÉ Radio 1 this morning. “He went over to Spurs three years ago [to visit], it’s a club he thinks very fondly of. We probably had 50 or 60 offers throughout Europe.
“The likes of Celtic have come really strongly and pushed really hard for him. You can only pick one club and he chose Spurs. We decided to make it happen and it’s all done now.”
Clarke now believes that the transfer could set a precedent for other Irish teams when it comes to their young talent moving over to England. “It was so easy to go over as a young teenager like I did in the past,” he added.
“You go into the academies that are really well funded in the UK and try to develop. But that has become more and more difficult, especially the bigger academies, because there is so many players in them. I think it’s brilliant for the League of Ireland.
“The FAI and Government have to get together to really fund the underage players coming through and give them everything the GAA players get.
“It’s crazy an amateur sport is better funded than a professional sport in Ireland. That needs to change to give the best young players the foundations to follow in Mason’s footsteps.
“Hopefully this transfer fee is a statement that it could be done and we don’t have to give our best young players away to English clubs for €100,000 or €200,000.”
The player himself has also responded to the transfer. Following his move to Spurs, the striker took to Instagram to send a message.
Sharing a picture of him posing with his new shirt, he wrote: “Buzzing to have signed for @spursofficial, see yous in 2026.” He added a white heart and big smiling emoji.
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