On Tuesday, Manor Solomon officially put pen to paper on a five-year deal, with the winger joining Ange Postecoglou’s team for the upcoming season, after Spurs fended off competition from Fulham, Aston Villa and Bundesliga sides to the signature of the Israel international.
Solomon, who will turn 24 later this month, will now have the opportunity to prove himself at one of England’s biggest clubs, after impressive spells at Shakhtar Donetsk and Fulham have seen him become a highly-rated forward, and a potential bargain, with the player joining on a free transfer, following FIFA’s decision to extend the ruling giving domestic Ukrainian players the right to suspend their contracts at their respective clubs until June 2024.
For Postecoglou, Solomon represents his third signing of the summer, following the arrivals of highly rated Italian goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario and former Leicester midfielder and England international James Maddison, in what still promises to be a busy summer for the Lilywhites.
The attacker started his career in his home country Israel, where he spent three years playing at Maccabi Petah Tikva. Solomon made 73 appearances at the club where he scored his first senior goal at the age of 17, eventually scoring eight and assisting six in Israel’s top flight, earning himself a place on UEFA’s 50 for the Future list.
Following his impressive form in Israel, Solomon was picked up by Ukraine’s biggest club and regular European competitor Shakhtar Donetsk. The winger adapted well to the Ukrainian Super League, making over 100 appearances, with 31 goal contributions to his name. In addition, the player won his first few pieces of silverware at the club adding two Ukrainian league titles and three cups to his collection.
During his time at Shakhtar, the young midfielder featured in 28 matches across the Europa and Champions League, giving the player vital development opportunities against some of Europe’s best sides, including games against Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Manchester City, Benfica and Atlanta.
In just his 4th Champions League appearance, back in November of 2019, Solomon netted his first goal in Europe’s elite competition - a well taken right-footed strike to give Shakhtar a deserved draw against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, Solomon described how he “woke up to the sound of explosions and sirens, it was like being in the middle of a movie. Everyone was panicking because the war had started and didn’t know what to do. I knew I had to get away because it was going to get worse.”
With FIFA’s decision allowing Solomon to seek pastures a new, the winger was loaned out to Fulham, where he spent the season under Marco Silva, in the club's first season back in the Premier League.
The player took time to adapt to West London after an ankle injury at the start of the campaign kept himself out for the first four months of the campaign. However, the winger would eventually go on to make 24 appearances in his first season in top flight English football, scoring five goals in the process.
Marco Silva, throughout the season, heaped praise on Solomon’s performances in year that was difficult for the player in not just his playing career but also more significantly in his personal life. Silva praised how Solomon added something ‘different’ to Fulham’s frontline, with the player netting superb goals against Wolves and Leeds at Craven Cottage.
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An Understudy to Son
One potential factor in the signing of Solomon is the fact that Tottenham’s star winger, Son Heung-Min is now 30 years old. The South Korean, who alongside Harry Kane, has been one of Tottenham’s most important players in Tottenham’s recent history.
While Son is likely to remain an integral part of Spurs’ frontline for the next couple of seasons, an understudy is necessary, with Solomon fitting the bill as as player who has all the attributes to be a success in North London.
There are startling similarities between the two players with a desire to take opposing full-backs on, run at defences and in-behind the flanks as well as a desire to cut inside onto both player’s stronger right foot.
Son, last season had one of his poorer seasons in recent memory for Tottenham, with the player looking unlike his usual self for the majority of the season after a gruelling campaign the previous season had seen him win the golden boot alongside Mo Salah, before featuring in almost every game for the Lilywhites as well as captaining his country at the World Cup.
While Solomon may not be able to walk straight into Spurs’ starting lineup, he will be able to learn plenty from Son, a player that has played over 370 matches for Tottenham, scoring 145 goals and assisting 80.
In addition, Solomon will provide fresh competition for players such as Richarlison, Bryan Gil and Dejan Kulusevski - who had his transfer made permanent at Tottenham this summer. While there will not be space for all of them to feature as much as they would like, it gives Postecoglou plenty of options as he builds up to his first season in N17.
Shakhtar fume at FIFA ruling
While Tottenham may be delighted with the bargain transfer of Solomon, for Shakhtar the deal represents something very different. Due to the FIFA ruling, which allows players to suspend their contracts until June 2024, Shakhtar are unable to gain money from loan and transfer fees representing a significant financial loss to the club in what is already a troublesome time for the Donetsk-based club.
Shakhtar's Chief Executive Sergei Palkin has already threatened to sue Tottenham over the signing of Solomon on a free, as the player's contract will run out in December 2023 leaving the club unable to gain any money for a player they initially invested a €6 million sum into.
"I contacted Solomon and his agent and invited him back to our club," Palkin said.
"I said 'you can play all the games in Champions League, you will be in the starting eleven' but he doesn't want to move and I believe he will stay in England.
Finally, where he will go, I don't know. In any case, if you go to Tottenham, we will deal with Tottenham in court in this case. Everything comes to a simple situation: it sounds like unjust enrichment.
Can you imagine, we pay big money for this player and finally Tottenham receives him for free? It is not fair in respect of our club. We will definitely go to court and we will fight for ourselves.”
While Palkin may threaten legal action, it is unlikely that Tottenham have acted illegally in any way due to the extension of the FIFA ruling, which is understandably seen as extremely unfair by those involved with Shakhtar.
