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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Dan Kilpatrick

Yaya Toure and Jermain Defoe set to join Tottenham’s coaching staff as overhaul continues

Tottenham are set to continue their restructure behind the scenes

(Picture: Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images)

Premier League greats Jermain Defoe and Yaya Toure are to join Tottenham as academy coaches.

Defoe, who scored 143 goals in 363 appearances in two spells at Spurs, is expected to take up his first coaching job in the club’s academy from next month, while Toure has been handed a full-time position after initially joining the club on a part-time basis in December.

Defoe, 39, had a brief spell on Rangers’ coaching staff after Steven Gerrard left the club last year and retired in March during his second spell at Sunderland.

Toure, 39, has previously held coaching positions at Ukrainian club Olimpik Donetsk and Russian side Akhmat Grozny, leaving the latter in June 2021.

Spurs have helped both former players undertake their coaching badges and they are set to be handed charge of their own age-group teams as part of a rejigged academy staff. Former Manchester City and Anderlecht coach Simon Davies has also taken up the role of head of methodology in the academy at Hotspur Way.

Bournemouth boss Scott Parker and Ryan Mason, who now assists Antonio Conte, both earned their first coaching jobs in the club’s academy, while Ledley King briefly worked under former manager Jose Mourinho.

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