Oliver William Skipp (born 16 September 2000) is an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

Club career

Skipp started his youth career with Bengeo Tigers FC before joining Tottenham Hotspur in 2008. On 29 August 2018, Skipp signed a three-year contract with Tottenham. He made his professional debut for Tottenham in a 3–1

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

win over

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

on 31 October. He made his league debut in a home match against

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, coming on as a late substitute in a 3–1 win, and made his first start on 15 December in a 1–0 win against

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

. In January 2019, Skipp assisted two goals in a in Tottenham's 7–0 win against

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they adop ...

in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

. On 17 July 2020, Skipp signed a new three-year contract with the option of a fourth with Tottenham. For the 2020–21, season he joined

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

on loan. Skipp scored the first goal of his career in Norwich's 3–1 win at

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

on 23 February 2021. Skipp went on to help Norwich win the Championship and was included in the 2021 PFA Team of the Year. Skipp established himself as a regular starter for Tottenham in the first half of the 2021-22 season, making 18 appearances before suffering a pelvic injury in January, which saw him miss the rest of the season. On 20 April 2022, Skipp signed a new five-year contract with Tottenham that is set to expire in 2027. Skipp made his return from injury in a pre-season friendly on 13 July 2022. On 26th February 2023, in the London Derby against

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

, he scored the opener 19 seconds after the second half restart for his first senior goal for Spurs and his first in two years.

International career

Skipp has represented England at Under-16, Under-17 and Under-18 levels. On 30 August 2019, he was included in the

England U21 The England national under-21 football team, also known as England under-21s or England U21(s), is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team. This team is for England players aged under 21 at the start of the calen ...

squad for the first time. He eventually made his U21 debut on 11 October 2019 as a substitute during a 2–2 draw against

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

in Maribor.

Style of play

Skipp operates as a defensive midfielder, and is known for his ability to break up play and win the ball. Then-teammate

Grant Hanley Grant Campbell Hanley (born 20 November 1991) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a defender for club Norwich City and the Scotland national team. He has previously played for Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United. Early years ...

said of Skipp in January 2021 that "he has experience beyond his years," and praised his ability to read the game and make decisions under pressure.

Personal life

Skipp was born in

Welwyn Garden City Welwyn Garden City ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London. It was the second garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first new towns (designated 1948). It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town and ...

and grew up in

Hertford Hertford ( ) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census. The town grew around a ford on the River Lea, ne ...

. From 2003 to 2012, he attended Duncombe Primary School and

Richard Hale School Richard Hale School is a boys' secondary school located in Hertford in the south east of England. In the 2014–2015 academic year, the school had over 1,000 pupils including students attending the optional sixth form, which is also open to gir ...

in Hertford. Skipp played youth football for Bengeo Tigers FC.

Career statistics

Honours

Norwich City *

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Individual honours *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

: 2020–21 Championship

References

External links

Profile
at the Tottenham Hotspur F.C. website {{DEFAULTSORT:Skipp, Oliver 2000 births Living people Sportspeople from Welwyn Garden City Footballers from Hertfordshire English footballers Men's association football midfielders Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players England men's youth international footballers England men's under-21 international footballers