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Pochettino's son comes off the bench in Tottenham's FA Youth Cup defeat

  /  autty

It was certainly the name that jumped out at you from the teamsheet, even if the player was only named among the Tottenham Hotspur substitutes.

And there were definitely a few bemused looks when the name Maurizio Pochettino was read out over the PA system when he came on for a brief extra time cameo.

Maurizio is the 17-year-old son of Spurs manager Mauricio and he came off the bench for the last nine minutes of their FA Youth Cup fourth round loss to Arsenal on Thursday night.

With Spurs trailing their north London rivals 5-2 when he was introduced in the 111th minute, there was little the winger could do to affect the outcome on this occasion.

But this chip off the old block is certainly hopeful of making mark way in the game at the club managed by his famous father.

Pochettino Jr's profile on the Spurs website makes no mention of his parentage, merely saying: 'A wide player with an eye for goal, Maurizio Pochettino was born in Barcelona and has since lived in Paris and Southampton.'

That is, of course, his father's career path, from Barcelona-based Espanyol to Paris Saint-Germain where Mauricio finished his playing days, to his first managerial assignment in the Premier League with the Saints.

And when Pochettino was given the Spurs job in May 2014, his son made the switch from Southampton's academy to Tottenham's six months later.

Since then, Maurizio has worked his way up through the ranks, combining football with academic studies at Aldenham School initially.

He then signed on at the Spurs academy full-time as a scholar in the summer of 2017 and shortly afterwards made the first of his appearances for the youth team in the Under-18 Premier League.

By a quirk of fate, his debut at that level came in a 2-1 win at old club Southampton and Pochettino scored for the first time in a 5-2 win at Swansea in November 2017.

In all, he made six appearances for Scott Parker's under-18 side that season, mostly as a right winger, and also played three times from the bench in the team's run to the Under-18 Premier League Cup final.

Further youth team outings have followed this season in what has become a free-scoring side currently top of the southern section of the Under-18 Premier League.

He found the net in a 7-0 drubbing of Norwich back in October and in December made his debut for the Under-23 side in a win at Manchester City.

Though they were blown away in extra time against Arsenal, ending their Youth Cup aspirations for another season, they have a great chance of winning the league title.

Spurs are also still in the UEFA Youth League, where they are due to play Greek side PAOK in the play-off round next month.

Pochettino's other son, Sebastiano, is also involved at Spurs. He is the first-team's sports scientist, having originally been employed as a sports scientist assistant.

Sebastiano is heavily involved with the first-team and at 23, he is the youngest to hold that position in the Premier League.