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    Toby Alderweireld Signs New Tottenham Contract Until 2023

    Tom Sunderland@@TomSunderland_Featured ColumnistDecember 20, 2019

    WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 15: Toby Alderweireld of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates after the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur at Molineux on December 15, 2019 in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom. (Photo by Chloe Knott - Danehouse/Getty Images)
    Chloe Knott - Danehouse/Getty Images

    Tottenham Hotspur defender Toby Alderweireld has signed a new three-and-a-half-year contract that will keep him in north London until 2023.

    Spurs confirmed the new deal via their official website on Friday, with Alderweireld set to remain at the club after it looked as though he could leave for free in the summer—his previous contract was due to expire in June 2020.

    The 30-year-old joined Tottenham from Atletico Madrid in July 2015 and has made 179 appearances for the Premier League outfit.

    Tottenham exercised a trigger in Alderweireld's last contract to extend his stay until 2020. No club succeeded in signing the player when his release clause temporarily dropped to £25 million this past summer, per TalkSport.

    The Athletic's Jack Pitt-Brooke said the 98-times capped Belgium international has substantially increased his earnings at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, noting the influence of new manager Jose Mourinho:

    Jack Pitt-Brooke @JackPittBrooke

    Reported by @Dan_KP that Toby has trebled his salary to £150k/week, 3.5year deal. Big commitment for a 30-year-old. But once Spurs appointed Mourinho they had to commit to pushing the boat out more on salaries - it would make no sense not to..

    Football writer Tom Victor suggested Mourinho may have been key in pushing for the player's new deal:

    Toby Alderweireld Signs New Tottenham Contract Until 2023
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    Tom Victor @tomvictor

    Mourinho really playing to the gallery with this new contract. Alderweireld's a stage

    Alderweireld has been a mainstay in the Spurs defence this season, playing the full 90 minutes in all but one of their 17 Premier League games, partnering either Jan Vertonghen or Davinson Sanchez in central defence.

    The former Ajax and Southampton star will be 34 by the time his new contract expires in 2023, but a clean bill of health in recent seasons suggests the length of the deal could still make sense.

    Alderweireld was out of action between November 2017 and March 2018 because of a hamstring injury, though that's the only long-term absence of his career thus far, per Transfermarkt.

    FourFourTwo's Seb Stafford-Bloor attested to the player's superb form in north London despite not being certain of his long-term future at the club:

    Seb Stafford-Bloor @SebSB

    One observation about Alderweireld: his form defeats the assumption that it's absolutely impossible for players with expiring contracts to play well. He's been largely excellent.

    Fellow Ajax alumni Christian Eriksen, 27, and Jan Vertonghen, 32, each still have unresolved contracts at Tottenham and are set to leave when their deals expire in June.

    Vertonghen said in September that he was eager to extend his stay at Spurs, per the Guardian's David Hytner. Club chairman Daniel Levy spoke to the Evening Standard (h/t Reuters) in mid-December and suggested he's "not scared" to sell Eriksen to a direct rival in January.

    Securing Alderweireld's future gives Tottenham the safety net of having one of Europe's in-form centre-backs of recent years, offering Mourinho another boost in his revival of the club.