Pape Matar Sarr will be considered as a home-grown for PL season 23/24, here is how the math works:
Who is Pape Matar Sarr:
Pape Matar Sarr is a Senegalese professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Tottenham-Hotspur in the premier league.
When we see the term “Home Grown”, There is a high chance that we might think in a way that the player should be born and brought up in England. Logically our way of thinking can be right but it’s not the same case when it comes to the Premier League
Confused??, let us connect all the dots step-by-step
Rules to form a team in the Premier League:
According to the FA(Football Association), a Premier League team can have only 25 players in a composition of 17 non-home-grown players and 8 home-grown players and can sign any number of players who are under 21
What constitutes a “Home-Grown” player:
A player is said to be “Home — Grown” if he has been in the books of a club that is recognized by the FA(the football governing body of England)
The Premier League brought its own HGP rules aka (Home-Grown Player) rules for the start of the season 2010/11 which stated that the players who train with a single club for 36 months(3 entire seasons) can be considered home-grown but the criteria were that the player must be under 21 before he completes all the 3 entire seasons with a single club and it was even applicable even if the player went to other clubs in the form of Loan.
Cesc Fabregas joined Arsenal at 16 and was classed as a home-grown player even though he was a Spanish international.
How did Pape Matar Sarr was eligible for homegrown:
Pape Matar Sarr was signed by Tottenham-hotspur for the season 2021–2022 and went to Metz for a loan was a player of Tottneahm in 2022–2023 and will be considered a “Home-grown” for the upcoming season 2023–2024 and he is still under 21
The irony is that Eric-dier who was born in England and plays for the England football team, Tottenham-hotspur is still considered a non-home-grown player as he was associated with Portugal club Sporting Fc
How does it help Tottenham-hotspur:
As a team can only have 17 non-home grown players in their team, Pape Matar Sarr who is a Senegalese player will be still counted as a home-grown and will not come under the 17 members list which allows them to sign more non-home grown players