Tottenham Hotspur are lining up RC Lens goalkeeper Robin Risser as a replacement for Guglielmo Vicario, with Fabrizio Romano confirming this week that the Italian is set to leave the club in the summer and Inter Milan leading the race to sign him.
Spurs have been tracking the 21-year-old Frenchman since before the January window, which suggests sporting director Johan Lange has already identified him as the leading option to step into the number one shirt.
Risser is contracted at Lens until 2030, meaning the French club hold all the leverage in any negotiation, but with Vicario’s departure now looking increasingly certain, Tottenham need to move.
Why Vicario is leaving and what his numbers tell us
The stats paint a difficult picture. Across 31 Premier League appearances this season, Vicario has made 83 saves but conceded 50 goals, with a goals prevented figure of minus 5.22, meaning he has cost Spurs more than five goals compared to what an average goalkeeper would have allowed.
His FotMob rating of 6.68 reflects a season where individual errors have compounded an already fragile defensive unit around him.
That said, context matters. Vicario has been playing behind one of the most chaotic defences in the Premier League under three different managers, and it is genuinely difficult to separate his own contribution from the structural failures around him. There is an argument that De Zerbi’s arrival could see him rediscover something closer to the form he showed in his first Spurs season.
But the weight of evidence, and the advanced state of Inter Milan’s interest, suggests the decision has effectively already been made.
Who is Robin Risser and why does he suit Tottenham?
Risser has been one of the standout goalkeepers in Ligue 1 this season.
After 28 appearances for RC Lens he holds a Sofascore rating of 7.18, which places him among the top performers at his position in the division.
For a 21-year-old in only his first season at the club, that level of consistent output is exactly the profile Spurs should be targeting: young, already performing at a high level in a major European league and with significant room to develop further.
The alternative within the current squad is Antonin Kinsky, but his performance against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League raised genuine doubts about whether he is ready to be a consistent first choice at Premier League level.
Risser, based on what he has shown for Lens, offers considerably more assurance at this stage.
Lens will not sell cheaply given his age and the length of his contract, so Tottenham should expect to pay a significant fee.
But securing a high-quality, young goalkeeper to anchor De Zerbi’s rebuild for the next decade is precisely the kind of smart, forward-thinking recruitment that should define this summer window.
