Mathys Henri Tel was born on 27 April 2005 in Sarcelles, France, with Guadeloupean heritage. He came through Paris FC's youth setup before joining Rennes in 2020, where at 16 he became the youngest player to appear in an official Rennes match — surpassing Eduardo Camavinga's previous record — when he debuted in August 2021.
In July 2022 Bayern Munich signed him for around €28.5 million. He quickly made an impact, becoming Bayern's youngest competitive goalscorer at 17 years and 126 days during a DFB-Pokal match. With Bayern he won the 2022-23 and 2024-25 Bundesliga titles. In February 2025 he was loaned to Tottenham Hotspur with an option to buy permanently, and in June 2025 Spurs exercised that option for around £30 million on a contract through 2031, with Tel contributing to Tottenham's 2024-25 Europa League triumph that ended a 17-year trophy drought.
For France he won the 2022 UEFA U17 European Championship as captain — beating the Netherlands 2-1 in the final — and scored five goals across nine U17 appearances.
Originally trained as a centre-back, Tel has developed into a versatile attacker capable of playing as a winger, centre-forward or attacking midfielder, with comparisons to Anthony Martial for his technical and physical profile. He continues to be on Bayern's books for accounting purposes through historic transfer arrangements but his current loan/sale to Tottenham is the operative reality.