Elijah Upson Joins Arsenal After Turning Down Tottenham Contract
Photo via Arsenal.com
Arsenal have announced the signing of Elijah Upson, who was most recently on the books at Tottenham Hotspur.
Upson rejected a contract extension with Spurs and fielded offers from Chelsea, Manchester City, Everton, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, and AS Monaco, before eventually agreeing to join Arsenal.
The youngster made his decision after visiting the Sobha Realty Training Centre earlier this month and holding talks with his family, including his father and former Arsenal defender Matthew Upson.
Photo via SpursAcademy on Instagram
“It’s a great feeling, really proud to be here,” Elijah said. “[It’s] really nice to have all my family and everyone around it, it’s been a great experience.
“My dad signed here around the same time as me, it’s great to have someone with a good experience of the place. But at the same time, I’m definitely looking forward to building my own reputation and getting started.
“When I met the guys here recently and met all the team and staff, it just seemed like a really nice environment. That was probably the biggest factor, an environment where you feel you can hopefully learn and get better as a person.”
Photo via SpursAcademy on Instagram
Upson had been a regular starter for the Spurs academy for much of the 2025/26 campaign. The centre-back appeared in six of Spurs’ seven UEFA Youth League games, and he started 13 of their first 16 u18 Premier League fixtures of the season.
Of the three games he didn’t start, one was due to injury, one was because he was starting for the u21s, and he came off the bench as a substitute in the third (against Arsenal).
But speculation around Upson’s future seemingly hurt his gametime, as he suddenly dropped out of the squad in mid-February and didn’t return to it.
As well as playing for Spurs, Upson is an England youth international, making a couple of appearances for the England u18s in October, and receiving a call-up for the u17 World Cup in November.
16 Oct 2001: Matthew Upson of Arsenal wins the ball as Michalis Konstantinou of Panathinaikos dives out of his way during the UEFA Champions Leagu…