Young Tottenham striker Jonathan Obika is very highly thought of at White Hart Lane, so much so that the powerful forward was awarded the Breakthrough Award by Tottenham’s fans last season after scoring 17 goals for the U18s. The 19 year old has already made his first-team debut for Spurs after impressing in the Tottenham U18s team, and now Obika is carving a name for himself down at Huish Park where he is staring for League 1 side Yeovil Town. Although it is still very early to make assessments on the potential of Obika, it looks as though he could be a very handy player.

Tottenham are not exactly short of strikers at the moment, with Jermain Defoe hitting the back of the net for fun, and Peter Crouch, Robbie Keane and Roman Pavlyuchenko all fighting for one of those two starting spots. So young English striker Jonathan Obika is some way down the Spurs pecking order at the moment, but he must be impressing the Spurs coaches with his performances for Yeovil. Obika has already made his first-team debut for Tottenham, playing firstly against NEC Nijmegen and then Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Cup last year. But he and no doubt manager Harry Redknapp decided it would be beneficial for the youngster to get some more regular first-team football, and Yeovil were more than happy to give that to him.

Obika first signed for League 1 outfit Yeovil on loan in March, staying at Huish Park until the end of the season and netting 4 times in 10 appearances. He obviously made an impression at Yeovil as well, as they re-signed him on loan at the start of this season and he has scored a further 3 goals in 12 matches. Yeovil is becoming something of a home away from home for Tottenham youngsters, as fellow Spurs players Steven Caulker and Ryan Mason are also playing for the Glovers with Jonathan Obika and have all had their loan spells extended until the end of the current season.

So Spurs fans won’t catch a glimpse of Obika at White Hart Lane this season, but many will be interested to keep tabs on his progress at Yeovil. Since Obika started his youth career with Tottenham back in 2006, he has managed to catch the eye of the coaches. Brought up in North London, Obika is a home-grown lad who is of a Nigerian descent, but has already featured for England youth teams. After being Spurs’ top scorer for the academy side in the 2007/08 season, Obika was called up to the England U19 setup and in turn has represented England U20 at the Under 20 World Cup last month, featuring in 2 games against Ghana and Uruguay.

The powerful striker who has spearheaded the Spurs U18 team and is now proving to be an important player for Yeovil could have a great future ahead of him. Obika is still very raw, but has shown he has the power and eye for goal that will help him to score plenty of goals. Obika has obviously won some admirers including manager Terry Skiverton during his time at Huish Park and his career is going from strength to strength. Jonathan Obika is finding his feet at a lower level, but he will view this as a stepping board for what he hopes could be a successful career at Spurs in the future.

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