Box-to-Box Brilliance - Signe Gaupset is Carrying Spurs Forward

A detailed look into Tottenham Hotspurs' bright young talent

Signe Gaupset is regarded as one of the brightest young talents in women’s football, so when Tottenham Hotspur signed her in January 2026, it was a clear sign from the club of ambition and intent.

The Norwegian made her professional league debut just three months after her sixteenth birthday, starting and scoring in a 4-0 win for Sandviken (now rebranded to Brann). She had 48 goal involvements in 79 league appearances for Brann, including 15 goals and 14 assists in 26 appearances in the 2025 Toppserien season. Couple this with 8 goals in 18 appearances for Norway, including two goals in their 4-3 win against Iceland at Euro 2025, and it’s easy to see why many elite clubs were interested in securing the 20-year-old’s signature. Spurs, with former Brann Head Coach Martin Ho in charge, is the team she chose.

Despite only joining Spurs halfway through the BWSL season, she has already become one of their most important players, starting all 10 of their matches since her arrival. Her tenacity, composure and technical ability have been incredibly important to a Lilywhites team that has reached a record high BWSL points tally this season.

Style of Play

Anyone who has watched Signe Gaupset for Spurs can vouch for her energy levels. She covers a lot of ground, especially in the opposition’s half. This heatmap illustrates it well.

Although she’s very capable at performing as a ball-winner or a playmaker, she is predominantly a box-to-box midfielder. Being on the ball in the centre third is where she is most effective and able to do what she does best - making the opposition panic. Whether it’s carrying, passing or shooting, her excellent technical ability means she has it in the locker to cause defenders problems in a variety of ways, making it even harder for a defender to predict what she is going to do.

Signe Gaupset’s heatmap in BWSL 25/26
Source: Sofascore

As Gaupset has only played 10 BWSL matches this season, she has not played enough minutes to compete with the league’s top players on core numbers for most metrics. Unless stated, data analysis in this piece looks at per 90 numbers and compares to other players with 360+ minutes played in this season’s BWSL, equivalent to four full 90 minute games.

Carrying Spurs to Elite Levels

Since Grace Clinton’s departure in the summer of 2024, Spurs have been without a truly elite ball carrier. Players like Jess Naz, Olivia Holdt and Ella Morris have done good work for the team, but they haven’t had someone who will be one of the league’s best carriers. That was, until January 2026.

Gaupset hasn’t just become Spurs’ most important ball carrier, but a shining light in the BWSL. This season she has carried the ball for 244.2m per 90, the 3rd most in the league behind Chelsea duo Naomi Girma and Lauren James, certainly good company to be in.

Carries can be done anywhere on the pitch, but Progressive Carries (ball carries that move the ball more than five metres upfield) are what helps a side cause problems for their opponent. The graph below features the top 50 BWSL players for total progressive carry distance per 90, and compares this metric to their average progressive carry distance.

Most of those players (bottom left) have 60-100m distance per 90 and 8-12m per progressive carry, which is pretty good going. There are a few players who have fewer carries of a further average distance (top left) and a few players who have more carries of an average distance (bottom right). However, only one player is having both more carries and a further average distance - Signe Gaupset.

At 162.5m, Gaupset has the furthest progressive carry distance per 90 in the BWSL, and 72m more than any other Spurs player. She also has the second furthest average distance at 14.55m, just 8cm behind Everton’s Toni Payne.

Passing Prowess

Although carrying has been her most noteworthy strength, her passing ability is also worth paying attention to.

Gaupset is Spurs’ top performer for final third passes per 90 with 14.18. Think back to the heatmap above - that deep red area in the opponent’s half is where she is playing these balls from.

She has also registered high from through balls (a pass splitting the defence for a teammate to run on to) with 0.43 per 90. This is, again, the best in the Spurs squad. However, it’s also the 4th best in the whole BWSL. Only six players have made more through balls in this season’s BWSL than Gaupset (4), all of whom have played at least 360 more minutes, equivalent to four full 90 minute games.

Superb Shooting

With players like England, Tandberg and Holdt in the side, Gaupset does not need to be Spurs’ main source of goals. However, she has still contributed with 3 goals in her 10 appearances, including the opener last time out in Spurs’ 2-1 home win against London City Lionesses. These goals equate to 0.32 goals per 90, roughly 1 in every 3 games. She’s done this by taking 3.11 shots per 90, 17th most in the BWSL and 2nd most in the Spurs side, only behind fellow young Norwegian Cathinka Tandberg.

Ball-Winning Midfielder

As mentioned in the Style of Play section, Gaupset is able to perform as a ball-winner for Spurs. Her 4.73 ground duels won per 90 is the 2nd most in the squad, only 0.05 behind Jess Naz. These ground duels contribute to an impressive 5.26 possessions won per 90, a metric where, once again, she is the number one player at Spurs. Remarkably, she has managed to post these numbers without getting a single card.

What Gaupset means for Spurs

Tottenham Hotspur are enjoying their most successful season in the BWSL, 33 points is more than they’ve ever had. While this has certainly been a team effort, the underlying numbers make it easy to recognise the contributions that the Norwegian has made in her debut half-season in England. Due to her maturity on the pitch it can be easy to forget that Gaupset is just 20, and therefore still a few years away from her prime. Spurs fans will no doubt be delighted with her first few months at the club, and extremely excited to see what heights she can reach in the future.

Word credit: Sam Biccarino