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- Friday July 1st, 2022 @ 11:00
Keeley Joins Tottenham Hotspur
Josh Keeley has joined Tottenham Hotspur for an undisclosed fee.
The 19-year-old moved to London earlier this week and began training with his new club.
Josh joined the St Patrick's Athletic Academy from Belvedere in 2018 and won a league and cup double with our U15s in his first season.
The goalkeeper, who is in Ireland Underage international at U16, U17 and U19, quickly progressed to our U17s where he won the league title in 2019 before becoming a league Champion again in 2020 as he played a key role in our U19s league final win against Bohemians. That win saw him make two appearances in last season's UEFA Youth League against Red Star Belgrade.
Josh, from Dunboyne, signed his first professional contract with St Pat's in January 2021 and made his first team debut off the bench in a 6-0 FAI Cup win at home to Bray Wanderers last July.
The former Shelbourne, St Kevin's Boys and Belvedere goalkeeper made his first league start, aged 18, in a 2-2 draw against Finn Harps at Richmond Park in the last league match of last season.
Keeley was also part of our FAI Cup winning squad last season, a dramatic penalty shootout win over Bohemians at Aviva Stadium in front of almost 40,000 supporters.
Josh said:
"I'm absolutely over the moon to have signed for such a big club. It's a very proud moment and a great achievement for me and my family. It's every kid's dream to sign for a team in England and I'm absolutely delighted. Signing the contract didn't even feel real, it still hasn't hit me yet and I can't wait to get going.
I'd like to thank everyone at St Pat's for my time at the club. I've loved every minute from when I signed at U15s right up to the first team and I appreciate all of the work and effort that was put into my development. I've made great friends at the club too and I'll be keeping an eye on the results and watching the games on LOITV.
St Pat's is a fantastic club and I'll miss it but I'm looking forward to getting going now at Tottenham, continuing to work hard and see where it takes me."
You can watch Josh's full interview about his time at St Pat's and his move to Tottenham on our Youtube channel below.
Manager Tim Clancy added:"This is a great opportunity for Josh to move to Tottenham. He's been around the St Pat's first team for a couple of years and has been doing very well for our U19s too. When an offer comes in for a young player like this to move to a Premier League team, you can't stand in their way and we wish Josh the best of luck."
While Technical Director Alan Mathews said:"We are absolutely delighted to see that Josh has got a dream move to a Premier League club. It's a terrific reflection on all of the hard work the people at the club have put into Josh as well as how hard he's worked at his game. Josh came to us as a 15-year-old and progressed all the way into the first team set-up. His rate of improvement over the last few years under the guidance of goalkeeper coach Pat Jennings has enabled him to take this opportunity and we wish him well. It's a terrific move for Josh and his family and he fully deserves it."
We thank Josh for his time at St Pat's and wish him luck for the future.
Photo credit: Sportsfile
