JAMES MADDISON has admitted that he had never heard of Guglielmo Vicario before joining Tottenham in the summer.
Ange Postecoglou’s side swooped for the Italian in a £16million deal from Empoli back in June.
Spurs announced Maddison’s arrival the following day, with the attacking midfielder going on to admit that he had to search for Vicario highlights on YouTube.
Chatting to the England star on Amazon Prime Video, former stopper Ben Foster claimed that Vicario has been the “best goalkeeper in the Premier League this season”.
Responding, Maddison said: “That’s a fair statement to make.
“We signed him. I hadn’t obviously signed yet. I was like ‘who is he?’ kind of thing. I’d never heard of him.
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“I’m in the back of the car on his YouTube Vicario highlights to see if he was any good.”
Foster then laughed before asking: “Were they decent at least?”
Maddison, 27, replied: “They were alright to be fair. Brilliant shot stopper.
“That’s the one thing… I think he’s hard to score past.
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“Sometimes we’ll practice penalties and shooting in training, I want him in goal because he’s the hardest to score past.”
In 2017, then-Spurs star Danny Rose called on the North Londoners to sign players that he “didn’t have to Google”.
He told SunSport: “I am not saying buy ten players, I’d love to see two or three — and not players you have to Google and say, ‘Who’s that?’ I mean well-known players.”
Vicario has impressed since succeeding former Spurs skipper Hugo Lloris as their first choice goalkeeper this season.
He has been ever-present in the Premier League thus far and has also been called by Italy.
In the summer Vicario revealed the nickname given to him for his fiery temperament.
He said: “It’s by two guys from broadcaster DAZN in Italy.
“They told me, ‘When you play sometimes you get angry, you feel angry, so you feel like Venom’.
“Also Venom starts with V, Vicario starts with V.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
