Who is Antonin Kinsky? Delve into the life of Tottenham Hotspur’s Czech goalkeeper
Antonin Kinsky became Tottenham Hotspur’s first signing of the 2025 January transfer window and given the attributes he possesses, he may not play second fiddle to Guglielmo Vicario for too long.
As Fraser Forster’s contract continues to wind down, Spurs were linked with many goalkeepers over the last 12 months, but Antonin Kinksy‘s name was not mentioned as a target for the club by any outlets.
The Lilywhites completed the deal under the radar, with the press only catching wind of it when the 21-year-old had come to Hotspur Way for a medical.
However, going by how quickly the keeper has progressed and how highly he is thought of back in Czechia, Spurs may have just pulled off a transfer masterstroke.
All you to know about Tottenham’s deal to sign Antonin Kinsky
Kinsky has been extremely impressive since becoming Slavia Prague’s number one at the start of the season, which convinced Tottenham to reportedly pay £12.5m to sign shot-stopper.
Some sources claimed there were some add-ons included in the deal and that Slavia have even added a sell-on clause so that they can benefit from the goalkeeper’s future sale.
According to reports, it was Tottenham’s technical director Johan Lange who had identified the 21-year-old based on his data algorithms, with the North London club extensively scouting the goalkeeper.
It is explained that Spurs were initially planning on making a move for Kinsky at the end of the 2024-25 season, but decided to bring their plans forward due to Guglielmo Vicario’s ankle injury.
Who is Tottenham goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky?
Kinsky is a Czech goalkeeper, born in Prague, who shot to the limelight in the first half of the 2023-24 season in light of his performances in the Czech top-flight and the Europa League.
Very much from the breed of modern-day goalkeepers, who are confident with the ball at his feet, the youngster has a reputation for being able to be extremely composed under pressure and find the right passes.
Quite fascinatingly, he shares the exact same name as his father, a fellow Czech goalkeeper, who hung up his boots back in 2010, having represented his country five times and spending the majority of his club career in Russia.
Antonin Kinsky’s football career before Tottenham
Having been born in Prague, Kinsky joined the academy of Tempo Prague aged just six, and would also go on to spend a few years in the youth set-up of Bohemians 1905 and Dukla Prague.
Then in 2021, he joined the academia of Slavia Prague, the biggest club in the country and immediately made waves in youth football.
His talent was clear from a young age, having represented Czechia all the way from Under-15s right up to the Under-21s, without missing a single age group side in between.
The goalkeeper got an opportunity to prove himself in men’s football when he joined Czech second-division side Vyskov on loan for the 2022-23 season, where he had an outstanding spell.
He was then loaned out to Czech top-flight side Pardubice last season, and he was once again up to the challenge, displaying maturity beyond his years.
His parent club had seen enough to be convinced and ahead of the 2024-25 season, he was made Slavia’s number one, a role that comes with a lot of scrutiny and pressure.
However, the 21-year-old was once again completely unfazed by the jump, delivering impressive reflex saves and showing the sort of authority and composure on the ball that rivalled the best goalkeepers in the world.
Tottenham had seen enough to put a sizable fee on the table and bring the youngster to North London.
Klinsky’s impressive numbers
Not only is Kinsky extremely young for a goalkeeper, but he is putting up numbers that rival the best numbers across Europe. He conceded just seven goals in 19 league games for Slavia, keeping 12 clean Sheets in the process.
The 21-year-old is at number one across the top ten leagues in Europe in terms of save percentage, goals conceded and clean sheets for the first part of the 2024-25 season.
The numbers suggest that the Tottenham man is also one of the best when it comes to passing out from the back, having a better pass-completion rate than any other goalkeeper in the Europa League this season.
Antonin Kinsky’s goalkeeping strengths and weaknesses
The one thing that is obvious from the above stats is that Kinsky is excellent when it comes to shot-stopping and also finding the right passes from the back.
However, stats alone often do not tell the full picture, which is why it is quite instructive to listen to what his former goalkeeping coach, Rostislav Horacek, has to say about the youngster.
Horacek, who worked with Antonin Kinsky during his loan spell at Vyskov, told Flash Score about the new Tottenham man last year: “His style of play is such that he’s straight away preventing himself from coming under pressure.
“He plays in such a way that it makes sense and the opponent doesn’t immediately go on the break. This makes his job easier for himself, but most of all it helps the whole team.
“He doesn’t care which foot he uses to kick the ball. I asked him in training which one he prefers, but he said it doesn’t matter. In short, he kicks with both equally.
“In Slavia, he has a great defence in front of him. It’s difficult for him to go 40 minutes without a save and then has to solve a difficult situation quickly. That’s exactly what Petr Cech used to do at Chelsea.
“Many times he can do something that would make his job much easier, but he prefers to choose a riskier solution because he wants to solve the situation in a football way at any cost.”
However, in the same interview, Horacek pointed out that the goalkeeper’s tendency to lose concentration when he is not involved for a long time is his biggest weakness.
The 57-year-old added about the former Slavia man: “He has a problem in one thing. Sometimes he doesn’t get into a match where he has a blind spot for 30 minutes, for example, he doesn’t get the ball at all. It bothers him because he loves to play, to play. He needs it.
“And when the ball gets to him, he sometimes tends to slip into wanting to be seen and invent unnecessarily complicated things. I can imagine that against Ajax, for example, the coaches had to restrain him so that he wouldn’t go crazy with some risky pass, because it could smell of trouble.”
Antonin Kinsky’s personal details
Antonin Kinsky was born on March 13, 2003, in Prague and stands at a height of 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) and weighs in at 83 kgs.
His height puts him exactly on the average height of goalkeepers across the Premier League and just short of Tottenham’s number one Guglielmo Vicario, who stands at 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in)
Kinsky currently has 31.5k followers on Instagram, but one would expect that to grow over the coming weeks and months.
Kinsky’s Spurs contract and squad number
The Czech goalkeeper has committed his long-term future, having signed a contract with Tottenham which runs until June 2031.
Kinsky chose the number 31 shirt as his squad number, which is the same number he had at Slavia. It remains to be seen if he changes that as more numbers become available in the summer.
Did Tottenham sign Kinsky as Vicario’s understudy?
Antonin Kinsky looks set to take over the number two spot at Tottenham when Fraser Forster’s contract runs out at the end of the season, perhaps Postecoglou might even prefer him to the Englishman over the rest of the campaign.
The fee that Tottenham have paid for the 21-year-old suggests that the club view the player as someone who can compete with Vicario for the number-one spot.
While that would be a big challenge for Kinsky, it is one he will be more than up for going by the way he has tackled every challenge that has been put in front of him over the last few years.
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