Zokora was influenced by Spurs' sporting director

The 25-year-old joined Spurs for �8.2m from St Etienne last month.

"Spurs are an ambitious club with lots of good young players and for me they are a club for the future," he said.

"I listened to an offer from Arsenal, but decided Spurs was where I wanted to be at. One of the things was that they showed they really wanted me."

Zokora added: "Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue are friends of mine, and of course it would have been nice to play with them at Arsenal - but I really wanted to go to Tottenham."

However, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said towards the end of last year that he was not interested in signing the Ivorian.

Meanwhile, the World Cup star said the persuasive powers of Tottenham's sporting director Damien Comolli played a big part.

He had also taken Zokora to St Etienne from Belgian side Genk.

"I was impressed by them and I know Comolli. I was very impressed by what they had to offer," he said.

"Comolli came out to speak to me in Germany and told me what a great club Tottenham is. I'm also very excited about playing with players like Aaron Lennon, who are the future of English football."