Spurs struck gold with "monster" ace who's a £100m star in the making

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While you can't guarantee what the results are going to be, you can be sure that watching Tottenham Hotspur play will result in 90 minutes of pure entertainment at the moment.

Ange Postecoglou's side are still struggling to put their inconsistent streak behind them, but continue to play some of the most aesthetically pleasing and attacking football in the Premier League, as evidenced by their league-high haul of 23 goals.

In fact, the North Londoners are scoring so frequently across all competitions that even some players you wouldn't usually associate with scoring are finding themselves surprisingly high up in the club's top goalscorers list, including one player who's recently been compared to a sensational international with an enormous valuation.

Spurs' top goalscorers

So, before we get to the player in question, let's look at Spurs' actual topscorers, and coming in at number one is the club's most inform attacker, Brennan Johnson.

The Welsh international endured a slow start to the campaign that even saw him deactivate his Instagram account following abuse from so-called fans.

However, following a late winner against Coventry City that kept the team in the League Cup back in September, he has been utterly unstoppable and currently has an impressive tally of seven goals and one assist in 17 appearances for the club.

Just behind him is record-signing Dominic Solanke, who also had a bit of a plodding start to life in North London but has since found his shooting boots and has six goals - including a brace against Aston Villa - and two assists to his name in just 15 appearances, which has been enough to earn him another call-up to the England squad.

Now, once we get into third place, there are three players all tied on three goals a piece, including the usual suspects of James Maddison, who also has four assists in 15 games, and club captain Son Heung-min, who has three assists to boot in his 11 games so far.

However, the final name to make it into the club's top three scorers for the season so far is probably not someone most fans would expect to see so high up, even though they are immensely talented and could one day earn the club a huge payday.

Spurs' surprise scorer

So, the Spurs ace who is currently tied on three goals for the season so far is Pape Matar Sarr, who has found the back of the net against Qarabağ FK and Ferencvaros in the Europa League and scored a screamer against Manchester City in the League Cup.

However, while it's certainly a bonus for Postecoglou and Co to see the talented midfielder help out with goals here and there, that is not what makes him such a unique talent.

Instead, it's his ability to help his more senior teammates run games from the middle of the park thanks to his impressive technical ability, surprising physical strength, general football intelligence, and ability to carry the ball forward into dangerous areas.

He showed a number of these traits in his sensational performance against Aston Villa just over a week ago, which earned him a 9/10 rating from football.london's Alasdair Gold and led to GOAL's Mitch Fretton calling him a "monster," which wasn't even hyperbolic, as he made three clearances, two interceptions and blocked one shot during his 90 minutes on the pitch.

On top of him now cementing himself as one of the first names on the teamsheet in N17, the Senegalese international has also now won comparisons to a certain rival player worth a fortune: Declan Rice.

Yes, according to FBref, which looks at players in similar positions across Europe's top five leagues before creating a ten-man list of the most comparable players, the Englishman is the fourth most similar midfielder to the Lilywhites star.

To better understand how this conclusion was reached, we can examine the underlying metrics in which the pair ranked very closely, metrics including but not limited to progressive passes and carries, non-penalty expected goals per shot, passes into the penalty area, successful take-ons, miscontrols and ball recoveries, all per 90.

Now, while the Spurs faithful might not be too keen on their exciting midfield talent being compared to one of those lot down the road, their opinions may change when they notice the Gunners ace's valuation of €120m per Transfermarkt, which comes out to about £100m.

If Sarr continues to play as well as he has been this season and is as similar to Rice as the data and analytics suggest, then given the fact he's still just 22 years old, it does not seem impossible that he, too, will one day be worth £100m or more.

Ultimately, even if a fee that high never makes it into Daniel Levy's hands, Tottenham have clearly got an incredible talent in Sarr.