Legendary marksman Defoe setting his sights on AC Milan Glorie

One of our all-time goalscoring greats, Jermain Defoe, will be part of our Spurs Legends squad to face AC Milan Glorie at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday 23 March (2pm).

Legacy Number #686, Jermain will be joined by Sebastien Bassong (#748), Stephen Carr (#610) and Teemu Tainio (#705) in the squad for the charity match in aid of the Club’s Foundation.

The popular quartet with over 700 appearances between them join Ledley King, Aaron Lennon, Teddy Sheringham, Michael Dawson, Dimitar Berbatov, Sandro and Heurelho Gomes in the squad to face the Italian giants in N17 - and more exciting names will be announced soon.

Jermain Defoe

One of the Premier League’s all-time top marksmen, currently sitting 10^th on 162, JD scored 143 goals in 363 appearances in all competitions over two spells at the club between 2004-2014 to sit seventh in our all-time goalscoring list. He famously scored five goals against Wigan in November, 2009 - one of only five players to do so in the Premier League’s 32-season history - and was our leading European goalscorer between 2013-2019 with 23 goals.

Kicking-off his career at West Ham, Jermain also represented AFC Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Toronto FC, Sunderland and Rangers - where he served as a player-coach and helped the Ibrox club lift the SPL title in 2020/21. He called time on a wonderful playing career in March, 2022, with an incredible 305 goals in 762 club matches to his name. He also scored 20 goals in 57 England caps over a 13-year span, 2004-2017, including the winner against Slovenia in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Awarded the OBE in 2018 for his charitable work, Jermain recently returned to the club in the role of Ambassador and enjoyed a spell coaching in our Academy set-up.

With such a long association with the club, Jermain was recently asked, 'what do Spurs mean to you?' He told us: “Everything. This Club... everywhere I go in the world, it’s Tottenham. Fans coming up to me, talking about Spurs. That’s it.”

Sebastien Bassong

Defender Seb made 71 appearances for us between 2009-2012 and was a key part of the squad that took us into the UEFA Champions League for the first time in 2010.

Indeed, that's where he scored one of the most important goals in our modern history - trailing 3-0 in the first league of our UCL play-off against Young Boys in Switzerland, he powered home a header to make it 3-1 just before half-time. Roman Pavlyuchenko reduced arrears to 3-2 before we stormed home 4-0 in the second leg at the Lane to take our place in the group stage.

Seb began his career at Metz in France before moving to the Premier League and Newcastle United in 2009. He joined us after one season at the Toon in August, 2009 and scored on his debut against Liverpool, heading home the winner in a thrilling 2-1 win that kick-started our run to fourth place in 2009/10 and Champions League qualification. Seb made 38 appearances that season, including 28 (25 starts) in the Premier League, sharing defensive duties with Michael Dawson and Ledley King.

He departed for Norwich City in 2012 and spent five years at Carrow Road, captaining the club, before spells at Watford, Peterborough United and Volos in Greece before retiring in 2019. He was back in N17 in March that year as part of our Legends team that took on Inter Forever in a test event for the new stadium.

Recalling his huge goal against Young Boys, Seb told us: “I remember listening to a quiz on the radio and they asked ‘who scored the first goal for Tottenham in the Champions League?’ and that was me! No-one can ever take that away. Every time I watch it back, my whole body is shaking. It’s amazing. So much emotion.”

Stephen Carr

The flying full-back made his debut at the age of 16 back in 1993 and went on to make 270 appearances for us between 1993 and 2004. Stephen joined our Academy set up in 1992 and made his debut at Burnley in the League Cup in September, 1993. His Premier League debut soon followed against Ipswich - at the time, making him our youngest player in the competition, a record he held until Dane Scarlett's substitute appearance against West Brom in February, 2021.

At his peak, Stephen was the best right-back in the league and one of the best in Europe, backed up via his selection by his fellow professionals for the PFA Team of the Year in 2000/01 and 2002/03, at a time when Gary Neville was winning the lot at Manchester United. He was part of our League Cup-winning team of 1999, starting the final against Leicester City at Wembley, but a serious knee injury ruled him out for over a year between September, 2001 and October, 2002 - forcing him to miss the 2002 League Cup Final and the 2002 World Cup with the Republic of Ireland.

Departing in 2004, he went on to play for Newcastle United and Birmingham City - where he won the League Cup again, beating Arsenal in the final in 2011 - and amassed 44 caps for ROI before his retirement in 2013.

He later returned to the club for the Lane's Finale in 2017 and was part of the Legends team that took on Inter Forever in one of the new stadium's test events in March, 2019.

Reflecting on his time at the Club, Stephen said: "I loved every minute of it. The fans were always brilliant with me. I had a great rapport with them, I appreciate that they got behind me and helped me. I played under all sorts of different coaches and learned from all of them, from the youth teams all the way up to the first team. Amazing memories. I always look back at it as the best time of my life."

Teemu Tainio

The former Finland international grew up in Lapland supporting Spurs and dreaming of following in the footsteps of his boyhood heroes, Paul Gascoigne and Gary Lineker. He lived that dream as he joined us from Auxerre in 2005, making 83 appearances before departing in 2008. Teemu began his career at his home club FC Haka before his switch to France in 1998. He played over 200 times for Auxerre in Ligue 1 before joining our central midfield ranks, which included the likes of Michael Carrick, Edgar Davids and Jermaine Jenas.

A goalscorer in our 4-3 win at West Ham in 2007, Teemu started our 5-1 win against Arsenal in the League Cup semi-final, second leg, before appearing off the bench to help us secure the trophy against Chelsea, a career highlight. Teemu went on to play for Sunderland, Birmingham and Ajax before a spell in the MLS at New York Red Bulls. He finished his career back in Finland at HJK in 2014.

And here’s a stat - Teemu scored the first ‘senior’ goal at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - turn the clock back six years he was part of our Legends squad taking on Inter Forever in one of our new stadium’s Test events. Teemu struck first as Inter ran out 5-4 winners that memorable day.

Recently turned 45, capped 64 times by Finland between 1998-2014, it always felt like a natural path into coaching for Teemu, bringing that wealth of experience from different leagues around the world. His coaching journey started, naturally, at his first club, Haka, in 2017. He’s also had spells at AEL Limassol in Cyprus and is now Head Coach at Tallinna Kalev in Estonia and part of Jacob Friis’ coaching staff for Finland’s national team.