Tottenham midfielder Erik Lamela has signed a new contract, committing his future to the club to 2022.
Although his career has been disrupted by injury in recent years, Lamela made 25 Premier League appearances last term as Spurs qualified for the Champions League again.Tottenham are yet to make any new signings ahead of the 2018-19 campaign but new contracts for Son and Lamela are a positive boost for manager Mauricio Pochettino.
“We are delighted to announce that @eriklamela has signed a new contract with the Club, which will run until 2022, Spurs tweeted.
On 30 August 2013, Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur completed the transfer of Lamela from Roma for a deal worth an initial £25.8 million, plus up to £4.2 million in bonus payments. The fee for Lamela made him the most expensive player in the club’s history, breaking the two previous records that had been set earlier in the transfer window, first for Paulinho and then Roberto Soldado.
On 1 September, Lamela made his debut for Tottenham as a 75th-minute substitute in a 1–0 North London derby loss to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. On 19 September, he made his first start for Tottenham against Tromsø IL in the UEFA Europa League, assisting Jermain Defoe for Tottenham’s opening goal in a 3–0 win at White Hart Lane. On 22 September, he assisted Paulinho’s stoppage-time winning goal after appearing as a substitute in Tottenham’s 1–0 win at Cardiff City.
On 7 November, Lamela scored his first goal for the club in a 2–1 Europa League win against Sheriff Tiraspol. Seventeen days later, he made his first start in the Premier League as Tottenham were beaten 6–0 by Manchester City. His season was ended by a back injury in April 2014.
Under Mauricio Pochettino, Tottenham’s new Argentine manager, Lamela was named in the starting line-up for the opening match of the 2014–15 Premier League season against West Ham United, making his first appearance of 2014. On 21 August, he appeared from the bench in Spurs’ UEFA Europa League match at AEL and assisted goals for Roberto Soldado and Harry Kane to secure a 2–1 win against the Cypriot club. He then recorded two more assists in a 4–0 win over Queens Park Rangers three days later at White Hart Lane.
Lamela scored his first goals of the season on 23 October, a brace in a 5–1 victory over Greek club Asteras Tripoli in the Europa League. His first goal was a rabona-style strike from outside the area, the goal being praised by the BBC as brilliant and by ITV as “world-class.” He scored his first Premier League goal on 20 December in a 2–1 win against Burnley at White Hart Lane.
Lamela’s first goal of the 2015–16 season came in a 3–1 UEFA Europa League win over Qarabağ FK on 17 September 2015. On 26 September, he scored his first Premier League goal of the season in a 4–1 home victory over Manchester City. Lamela scored his first career hat-trick as Tottenham thrashed Monaco 4–1 in the Europa League on 10 December.
Lamela scored with a second half header on the opening day of the 2016–17 season in a 1–1 draw against Everton at Goodison Park. However, a hip injury in late October left him unfit for matches for a long period and ended his season.
After more than a year out due to the hip injury that required two operations, Lamela appeared in the Premier League away game against Leicester on 28 November 2017 as a substitute. He assisted in the only goal for Spurs, but the game ended in a 2–1 loss. He followed that up with his first league start of the season in a 2–0 home win against Brighton on 13 December 2017. He scored his first goal of the season in the 2–0 win against Newport County in the fourth round replay of the FA Cup on 7 February 2018