Tottenham may have left it very late in the January transfer window but the acquisition of Kevin Danso from Lens already appears to be an excellent piece of business. The 26-year-old has immediately looked at home at the heart of Ange Postecoglou’s defence and all connected with Spurs cannot wait to see how he develops over the coming years.
Danso’s move from Lens is initially a loan deal but it will become permanent in the summer for £20.9million due to an obligation to purchase clause in the agreement struck between both clubs. The fee could prove to be an absolute snip for Tottenham if Danso’s first five appearances in a Spurs shirt are anything to go by.
Perhaps helped by his time growing up in England and also ten appearances for Southampton in the 2019/20 season, the Austria international has settled into life in north London so quickly to become a key member of Postecoglou’s backline. Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven will be expected to come straight into the Tottenham team upon their return from injury but Danso will certainly have something to say about that.
Born in the Austrian city of Voitsberg before moving to Milton Keynes at the age of six, Danso spent time with Reading and MK Dons as a youngster prior to departing for German club Augsburg in 2014. However, things could have panned out very differently for the defender as he was also a talented rugby player when growing up.
“I had a few scholarship offers for rugby clubs, for private schools as well,” said Danso (via The Evening Standard). “At one point I had to decide because it was getting more serious and with the injury risk the older you get, I just decided to play football.”
Rugby’s loss was certainly football’s gain. On his journey to becoming a Tottenham Hotspur player, Danso endured plenty of ups and downs that come with a career in football after making his debut for Augsburg in the Bundesliga in March 2017 at the age of 18.
Featuring a bit more regularly over the following two seasons for the German club, Danso would return to England in the summer of 2019 after securing a season-long loan to Southampton. The opportunity to play in the world’s best league and against some of the best players from across globe, his switch to St Mary’s unfortunately turned out to be a disaster.
Speaking at the time, Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl hailed the capture of Danso and mentioned the defender’s “existing qualities and the potential to develop even further”. His development would unfortunately stagnate on the south coast after only making ten appearances for Saints across the campaign.
Making six Premier League outings in Southampton’s first 11 games of the campaign, he would not feature again in the top flight for Saints after a 15-minute cameo against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium in early November 2019. Failing to appear in the matchday squad in 14 of their remaining league games, Danso would head out on loan again the following season as he dropped down to 2.Bundesliga to link up with Fortuna Dusseldorf.
It was not how the Austrian had envisaged things after 12 months earlier getting his big move to the Premier League. However, it provided him with a big wake-up call and proved to be a pivotal moment in his career that put him on the path to becoming the footballer he is today.
“Two very different loans spell. I had been at Augsburg for about five years, two years as a pro, and obviously at that age I didn’t feel like I was getting enough playing time. Obviously being young, the most important thing is actually playing and just to gain experience,” said the defender on his Southampton and Fortuna Dusseldorf loan spells when speaking in an interview with Rising Ballers.
“I think when you’re young, you dream of being a football player, you dream of playing at the highest level and you can only do that by playing games and showing your potential. I didn’t feel like I was getting that at Augsburg anymore. Being from the academy, obviously they have established players that have been playing there for years and some playing at bigger clubs and then coming to Augsburg.
“After the Under-21 Euros, which I did really well in, we got eliminated in a group stage but I had two very good games and one decent game, I just wanted to make that next step. I had a lot of offers from Italy and from Germany as well, but I think being from England, growing up in England, dreaming of always playing in the Premier League, I chose Southampton.
“I started off amazingly, I started off really well and I was playing left-back and I was a centre-back. I started off playing left-back, played right-back, played one game or two games at centre-back. Like I said, I started off really well and then started playing less and less, which is quite frankly my own fault as well. I take responsibility for that.
“I’ve got to the Premier League, playing in the Premier League and it’s a dream come true, so I started taking my foot off the gas a bit. I think that’s the point in my career I learnt most about myself and I just really understood what it took if you want your dreams to become a reality, like the work you have to put in and I learnt that from a lot of the players at Southampton.
“Even though I wasn’t playing a lot then after a few months, just the support from the players, the likes of Ryan Bertrand, Nathan Redmond and, which I will always say, James Ward-Prowse, just the professionalism, the things that he put in place, the things he did. I definitely took a leaf out of his book because he’s the the most professional player I’ve ever played with. There’s no stone unturned and he just works at everything.
“That’s when I thought, ‘okay, you can never take your foot off the gas’ because if you want to be a player at a high level, you’ve got to work as hard as some of these players did and change your mentality. I learnt a lot from those players around me.
“I started amazing and I was playing, and I was doing well and then, like I said, taking your foot off the gas and you can’t afford to do that, especially in the Premier League, which is definitely the toughest league I’ve played in so far.
“After obviously not playing a lot, not doing anything, I went back to Augsburg and then went on loan again to Fortuna Dusseldorf. I was in 2.Bundesliga and the first few games didn’t go so well because I was playing a little bit with a chip on my shoulder that I shouldn’t be here. My level is the Premier League. I’ve already kind of showed that I can play at the highest level, I’d played in the Bundesliga. Like why am I here?
“When you take a foot off the gas that’s normally what happens and the first few games didn’t go so well. I was playing but I wasn’t playing amazingly and then I think the minute where I realized that I was like, actually I really just have to be head and shoulders above the rest of everybody, the people in the league, was when we went to play, and no disrespect to them, Wurzburger Kickers.
“Nobody probably would have heard of them but from playing at the Etihad Stadium to Wurzburger Kickers’ stadium was the absolute wake-up call for me. You dream as a kid to be playing at the stadiums like the Etihad, Old Trafford and Anfield on these big stages and then here I am playing at the Wurzburger Kickers’ stadium.
“From that point on now my head was screwed on and I was fully focused. Then I had a really good rest of the season for Dusseldorf and I think it was something like I was man of the match for Dusseldorf in 30% of the matches for the whole season. I think it was a good decision to go to the 2.Bundesliga just as a wake-up call and to just to prove myself that this isn’t actually where I belong and I have the potential to be better.
“It’s just about proving that every day and that’s what I learnt from that loan spell that it doesn’t matter how much potential you have, how good you think you are, you actually have to prove it every day in every training session and in every game.
“You can’t take your foot off the gas and I think you see it in football a lot that there’s players with loads of potential that then don’t end up making it. I’ve played with some amazing players that definitely should have made it but I think they played too long in their comfort zone or I think they believed that their potential would get them to where they think they should be but the reality is if that you’ve go to work hard.”
Perhaps at the time looking to be a huge downgrade after his time in the Premier League with Southampton, Danso’s temporary switch to Fortuna Dusseldorf and his experience at Wurzburger Kickers could be viewed as the best thing to have happened to him. The ex-Augsburg man’s career has only gone in one direction since then, both in terms of his club career and on the international stage.
Having excelled for Fortuna, the player would be on the move for the third successive summer as he headed to France to sign for Lens. That is where Danso would really make a name for himself and eventually result in his move to Tottenham.
Becoming a permanent member of the Lens backline and going on to make 35+ appearances in his first three full seasons with Les Sang et Or, Danso’s form was acknowledged in the 2022/23 campaign with a place in the Ligue 1 Team of the Year. It was a year that saw Lens agonisingly losing out on the league title to PSG, with the side from the French capital pipping their rivals to first place by a single point.
It would only be a matter of time before Danso would return to the Premier League for a second time. Maybe something he took for granted first time around, he was never going to do the same again when given the opportunity.
“It feels amazing to be here at the club, I always wanted to play for a big club in the Premier League and Tottenham Hotspur is exactly that,” said Danso after signing on the dotted line in N17. “I think as soon as you here Tottenham Hotspur is interested then I think the only thing you can do is say yes. It’s an amazing project and I’m happy to be here.”
Everyone connected with Tottenham is very happy that Danso is here and already playing a key role in Postecoglou’s team. A rare shining light in the Liverpool and Aston Villa cup defeats, the defender has impressed in his Premier League outings and it has duly left his head coach waxing lyrical about him.
When it comes to completing transfers, Postecoglou is always a pivotal figure in convincing a player to join and many have noted the power of a conversation with the Australian. What the 59-year-old looks for in potential new signings is character and he does also like to sign someone who maybe hasn’t had the conventional route in the game and has had to drop down the divisions before making their way back up.
That was the case with Guglielmo Vicario, with the goalkeeper’s father, Michele, detailing his son’s chat with Postecoglou and that the boss had chosen him “because Guglielmo worked his way up just like him”. Danso’s route to Tottenham is not too dissimilar to that of Vicario’s, with the defender’s wake-up call at Fortuna Dusseldorf and his realisation that “you can’t take your foot off the gas” making him the perfect Postecoglou player.
It has been some journey for Danso in the eight years since stepping onto the field for Augsburg in the Bundesliga for the very first time. There are many more chapters to add to his story, with all the best lines hopefully still to be written at Tottenham.
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