Tot­ten­ham Hot­spur

Based in the Tot­ten­ham district of the Lon­don bo­rough of Ha­rin­gey, Tot­ten­ham Hot­spur is among the win­nin­gest clubs in Eng­lish foot­ball (as­so­ci­a­ti­on foot­ball). The team, nick­na­med the Spurs, has won the Eng­lish top-​division le­ague cham­pi­on­ship twice. It has won the Le­ague Cup four times and the Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­ti­on (FA) Cup eight times. It has also en­joy­ed no­ta­ble suc­cess in in­ter­na­ti­o­nal com­pe­ti­ti­on.

The team was foun­ded in 1882 by mem­bers of the Hot­spur cri­cket club in Tot­ten­ham. Known as Tot­ten­ham Hot­spur from 1884, the team be­ca­me a pro­fes­si­o­nal foot­ball club in 1895. The Spurs soon de­ve­lo­ped a fa­mous ri­val­ry with Ar­se­nal, ano­ther po­pu­lar foot­ball club based in North Lon­don. The two teams face off in a “North Lon­don derby” match ne­ar­ly every year.



Du­ring the fol­lo­wing de­ca­des, the Spurs con­ti­nu­ed to excel in both in­ter­na­ti­o­nal and do­me­stic play. The team added a se­cond UEFA Cup tro­phy to its collec­tion in 1984. It won back-​to-​back FA Cup tit­les in 1981 and 1982 and gar­ne­red its eighth FA Cup in 1991. The team also won the Le­ague Cup in 1999 and again in 2008. In the 2016–17 se­a­son, Tot­ten­ham fi­nis­hed as runner-​up to Chel­sea FC for the Pre­mier Le­ague title. At the con­clu­si­on of that se­a­son, the Spurs’ White Hart Lane sta­di­um—the club’s home venue since 1899—was de­mo­lished. The team play­ed its home matches at Wem­bley Sta­di­um in Lon­don in 2017–18 while a new 62,000-seat sta­di­um was con­struc­ted for Tot­ten­ham at the site of White Hart Lane.

Stand­out play­ers for the Spurs have in­clu­ded Danny Blanch­flow­er and Cliff Jones, who hel­ped lead the club du­ring its famed 1960–61 cam­pai­gn. Jimmy Gre­a­ves, Bobby Smith, and Mar­tin Chi­vers were among the Spurs’ most pro­li­fic goal sco­rers. Steve Per­ry­man es­tab­lished a fran­chise re­cord for most games play­ed by ap­pearing in 854 matches with Tot­ten­ham bet­ween 1969 and 1984. Top play­ers for the Spurs in the early 21st cen­tu­ry in­clu­ded Rob­bie Keane, Jer­main Defoe, Ga­reth Bale, and Harry Kane. Bale was the Pre­mier Le­ague’s play­er of the se­a­son in 2012–13. Kane was the le­ague’s lea­ding sco­rer in both 2015–16 and 2016–17.