Guglielmo Vicario's birthday: A look back on his Spurs career so far

Tottenham Hotspur number one, Guglielmo Vicario, turns 28 today. Goalkeepers often don't reach their peak until their 30's, so the best is yet to come. To mark the occasion, let's look back on his Spurs career so far.

Vicario was purchased from Serie A side Empoli back in the summer of 2023. It is safe to say that very few Spurs fans were not aware of the goalkeeper before he signed, leading a lot of fans to feel very underwhelmed by the signing, with some wondering why the club hadn't gone for a more proven and/or homegrown option instead.

However, despite this, Vicario made an incredible start to his Spurs career, that very few could have imagined. The goalkeeper was one of the big reasons why Spurs had won eight and drawn two from the first ten games of the Ange Postecoglu era to start last season.

Whilst Spurs had looked very exciting in attack, due to the kamikaze nature of the style of play, teams would get in behind, but Vicario would often be there to make saves or sweep a dangerous loose ball. Even in the defeat to Chelsea last November, the Spurs number one had made several incredible saves from one-on-one situations, as well as some high octane sweeping from the famous high line that night.

He has still been fairly good since the first few months, though there has been a drop off. Particularly in the new year, Vicario became a target from set piece situations, notably against Manchester City and Everton within a couple of weeks of each other. His commandment, or lack there of, from set pieces has been spoken about a lot during his time in North London.

There is no questions about his shot stopping or sweeping, however. Even against Qarabag in the Europa League, when Spurs were suffering adversity with ten men, Vicario made a number of top class saves when Ange's side were under the cosh, to help seal the win and keep a clean sheet in the process. He even had the armband for the last 20 minutes of that game. That was a night when the experienced players needed to step up, and they did, including the number one.

Although he has not been able to oust Gianluigi Donnarumma as the Italy number one goalkeeper, he certainly has the next spot locked down and his performances for Spurs last season were rewarded with his first national team cap against Ecuador in March.