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Tottenham paid big money to sign Dominic Solanke in 2024 but injuries have spoiled his time in North London so far.
Ever since the sale of Harry Kane in the summer of 2023, Spurs had been looking for a new centre-forward to lead the line. After much deliberation, Dominic Solanke was chosen as the man to do just that.
He’s shown he’s more than capable of being the main source of goals for the Lilywhites, but he’s struggled to stay fit and has lost valuable time on the pitch as a result.
If you’ve watched the Premier League over the last few years, you’ll be familiar with Solanke’s talents, but we’ve gone even deeper to bring you everything you need to know about the striker.
Dominic Solanke was Tottenham’s record signing
Solanke signed for Tottenham on Friday August 10, 2024 for a reported £65m, making him the club’s all-time record signing at the time. He has since been surpassed by Xavi Simons, who cost less than £1m more than Solanke.
Solanke made his Spurs debut against Leicester City on August 19, 2024, but was unable to make his mark in a 1-1 draw. Solanke also picked up an ankle injury in that game that saw him miss Tottenham’s next three league games.
The 27-year-old scored his first goal for the Lilywhites in a 3-1 win over Brentford on September 21, 2024, tapping in after a James Maddison effort was parried into Solanke’s path. He would go on to bag his first goal in European competition just five days later in the win over Qarabag.
Solanke reached a career milestone while at Spurs, scoring his 100th goal in the win over Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League semi-final. Despite injuries affecting his run of games in 2024/25, Solanke was pivotal to Tottenham’s run to the trophy in that competition.
Ange Postecoglou offered plenty of praise for Solanke relating to his work ethic and claimed the striker will provide lots of goals for the team (BBC). The former Spurs boss made it clear that Solanke was the player he wanted the most when it came to finding a new centre-forward (Football.London).
Over the summer and into the early parts of 2025/26, Solanke struggled for fitness and missed plenty more games. He had surgery on his ankle which kept him out of action right through to January 2026. Solanke was back among the goals soon after returning, though, with a crucial goal in the Champions League win over Borussia Dortmund.
Solanke’s market value and contract details
As per Transfermarkt data, Solanke is only worth just over £30m, suggesting Spurs overpaid against the striker’s actual market value. We should always take that information with a pinch of salt, though. It’s likely his injury record over the past year has severely affected his value.
There has been some confusion around how much Solanke is paid at Spurs. It was originally thought the marksman was on £90,000 per week or £4.68m per year, but updated information suggests his contract is worth closer to £140,000 per week (as per Capology).
That puts him just outside the top five earners at the club, with only Randal Kolo Muani, Mohammed Kudus, James Maddison, Xavi Simons, and Cristian Romero above Solanke. He’s on a six-year deal that runs through to the summer of 2030.
Where has Dominic Solanke played before?
Dominic Solanke came through the ranks at Chelsea as a youngster before joining Liverpool on a free transfer, and then signing for Bournemouth.
The forward actually only made one appearance for Chelsea, amounting to just 17 minutes of action. He was fairly prolific for the Blues’ youth teams, though, and enjoyed a relatively productive loan spell with Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem.
Solanke made the free switch to Liverpool in 2017 after his Chelsea contract expired, but bagged just one goal in 27 appearances for the Reds before moving on to Bournemouth in 2019.
He made 216 appearances for the Cherries, scoring 77 goals and registering 31 assists. Solanke really made a name for himself in 2023/24, when he scored 19 league goals for Bournemouth in the Premier League.
His previous best campaign before that came in the Championship, where Solanke bagged 29 goals in the 2021/22 season to help Bournemouth gain promotion to the top flight.
Dominic Solanke’s Trophies and awards
Despite only making one appearance for Chelsea, Solanke does have a Premier League winners medal from the 2016/17 season.
He was also a runner-up in the Champions League with Liverpool the following season.
At youth level, Solanke won the UEFA Youth League with Chelsea Under-19s and the Under-21 Premier League.
Of course, Solanke now has a major European trophy to add to his cabinet, after being instrumental in Tottenham’s Europa League triumph.
Solanke also helped the England Under-17s win the European Championship, and later was a key figure in the England Under-20 side that won the World Cup in 2017. He scored four goals in seven games in the Under-20 World Cup, and four goals in four games at the Under-17 Euros.
What does Dominic Solanke’s celebration mean?
Solanke’s current celebration sees him pull an imaginary arrow from his back, load up a bow and fire the arrow into the crowd.
Explaining the thinking behind this in an interview (via Tribuna), Solanke said: “The answer is nothing that’s going to excite anyone to be honest. It literally just came about when we were doing the media stuff before the season and I didn’t really have a signature celebration and that was just something that came to my mind. And it just kind of stuck.”
This is the same celebration you can see Mo Salah doing previously, and we’ve also seen Edinson Cavani pulling out the invisible bow and arrow in the past, too.
In the past, however, Solanke’s love for anime has come through in his celebrations. Most notably, at Bournemouth, Solanke pulled out an Obito Uchiha mask, a character made popular by Naruto. He even struck the meditative pose the character uses in the show.
Solanke is a massive anime fan. So much so, that his announcement video upon signing for Spurs was anime-themed, with a bold animation style and graphics showing Solanke’s hidden ‘superpowers’.
His love of anime has even seen Solanke put together a short animated movie with help from the creative team at the club. You can watch the making of that short above.
Dominic Solanke’s personal information
Solanke is a very tall striker, coming in at 1.86m tall, but he’s pretty lean, weighing just 80kg. He was born in Basingstoke, England on September 14, 1997.
Although he has represented England at all levels, his father is of Nigerian descent so he could have opted to play for the African country instead.
Solanke got engaged to Erica Raimondi in November 2022 and they got married in June 2025. The couple became parents for the first time in September 2023, when they celebrated the birth of a baby girl.
More England caps beckon for Dominic Solanke
Dominic Solanke had just one England cap when he joined Spurs, getting 15 minutes in a friendly against Brazil back in November 2017. However, he’s now up to three caps after featuring in the UEFA Nations League in October and November 2024 against Greece and Ireland.
The forward represented England at every youth level, proving particularly prolific for the Under-17s and Under-20s. Interestingly, Solanke was also given his Under-21 debut by Gareth Southgate.
Naturally, as he was a bit-part player for Chelsea and Liverpool, more call-ups to the senior squad failed to come. While he was with Bournemouth, he spent a lot of time in the Championship, too, leaving other strikers to get ahead of him in the pecking order.
Solanke may have been a little unlucky not to catch Gareth Southgate’s eye ahead of Euro 2024 after his impressive campaign in 2023/24. He’ll need to stay fit and start firing in the goals again if he has a chance of making it to the World Cup this summer, but he has a good chance given there is not a great deal of competition in the forward spots for England.
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