The gifted 22-year-old English player, known by supporters as “Starboy,” rose through Arsenal’s youth programme after being discovered and signed at the age of nine.
Bukayo Saka will have prayed, consumed his lucky Twix and shared a last-minute kiss with lover Tolami Benson before taking the pitch for the Euro final.
He will have put on his personalised gold and cream Furon v7+ boots and used his go-to comb for hair styling before leaving the house. The 22-year-old Arsenal youth academy product was noticed and recruited at the age of nine. Fans dubbed him “Starboy,” a young wunderkind.
Since then, he has developed into one of England’s best players, scoring a penalty to erase the memory of his miss in the 2020 championship game and the equaliser against Switzerland in the 80th minute. Mark Harvey, his PE teacher for Years 7 through 11, who described how the child had “unbelievable” talent at the game but was exceptionally modest about it when he was at school, will be among the proudest people watching him today.
Mark remembers, “The one thing that always sticks with me is that he would never showboat.” When a young child is gifted, especially in football, there is regrettably a tendency for them to engage in a lot of ball-hogging. At that age, they don’t actually see the pitch very well, but he did. He had the entire game displayed in front of him. It is unusual for a young kid to have that kind of eyesight.
The young Saka was raised in a two-bedroom terraced home in Greenford, west London, by Nigerian parents who immigrated to the UK in the 1980s in search of a better life. At the age of three, he fell in love with football and would spend hours kicking a ball around the little green with his older brother Abayomi and father Yomi, until they would urge him to go to bed.
A few of his neighbours still reside on the peaceful dead end street, where one recalls the young man displaying his amazing ball handling skills by scurrying past a sign prohibiting ball sports. The neighbour smiled, “When Bukayo played, there were never any broken windows.”
In 2019, Saka’s rise to fame coincided with the family’s relocation to a bigger residence in Hertfordshire. With his recent success, he was able to afford the £2.3 million price tag. Yomi and Adenike, his parents, had given up their weekends and nights to take their son to matches while working menial jobs to make money meet in order to support their son’s goal.
Gareth Southgate and Bukayo Saka celebrate on the pitch ( Image: PA)
The young man would complete his math homework in the back of the car while they travelled the entire length of the nation in search of fixtures, believing that he must prioritise his education if he wanted to become a professional. “We collaborated closely with the family; his parents were incredibly helpful,” adds Mark, who is currently employed at Greenford High, Saka’s former school.
“Family support is essential for such young individuals, as they require stability and cautionary tales about the fiercely competitive world they will soon enter. His parents were aware of this and made education a top priority for him. According to his former teacher, Bukayo “never missed a bit of homework” in his five years of secondary school.
“I have access to his entire behavioural history, and nothing is there.” He was an exemplary student. Knowing him as I do and seeing how he’s grown as a young man, it seems to me that he remains the same guy in interviews. Saka developed became the team’s covert weapon at school. “Get the ball to Bukayo, everyone else get the hell out of the way!” would be their strategy.
“I recall games in which we would subdue him to face rival schools. This would be years eight or nine. I recall laughingly telling him during a game that “everything has to be on your right foot; I don’t want you to use your left foot,” says Mark. “And he was still in charge! We haven’t done it as a school since he won the Middlesex Cup in year nine. We still have that in our trophy cabinet.
Saka was never the leader of the group at school, but she did have a close-knit group of four or five pals. Mark chuckles, “A few of the others were louder, but Bukayo was never that sort.” “I am aware that they are still close currently. Every now and then, they go eat. He would say the same thing, but they keep him grounded. He is cognizant of his origins.”
Saka insisted that the organisers invite students from his primary and secondary schools to come and see him when he inaugurated the New Balance store in Westfield, White City, last December, with the intention of serving his community. “Being an England football star, he wants to give back to the community because he remembers being in this school,” Mark adds.
Mark wasn’t sure they would stay in touch after Saka graduated from secondary school with four A*s and three As at the GCSE. However, they still converse before and after major games, primarily via text. “I was messaging him on a regular basis as an Arsenal fan last season,” he says. “I wish him luck before every game, saying, ‘I hope everything goes well.'”
“I got a little emotional at the Euro quarterfinal against Switzerland [when Saka equalised at 80 minutes before England won on penalties].” I became a total fanboy and texted him as soon as he scored, as well as again at the conclusion of the match.
Saka is still quite polite; he still addresses his PE teacher as “Sir” or “Mr. Harvey.” Mark laughs lovingly, “He told me he can never call me anything other than Sir, which is lovely.” Saka’s road to fame, meanwhile, hasn’t always been easy. He and a few other Black players were subjected to racist taunts during the Euro 2020 final, in which he missed the penalty that would have given Italy the victory. Saka, who was only 19 at the time, described it as terrible, saying, “I knew instantly the kind of hate I was about to receive.”
He remembers that he and Mark “spoke about racism very briefly.” “Being familiar with Bukayo and his family, I can imagine he took a two- or three-day break from social media to spend time with them and think things through, and then he returned to the game and let it speak for him,” the man says. Regretfully, a tiny minority will always exist who will try to degrade the game. It’s encouraging to see that the football community supported Bukayo and that, in the proper manner, we silenced their voices.
Saka is aware that his school is behind him as he steps onto the pitch. As they enter and exit, students have been screaming his name. According to Mark, “the semi-final day had an incredible atmosphere.” “The pupils celebrated their ancestry on an international day, and it was heartwarming to witness them all going out singing songs about England and his name.
In addition to two autographed shirts he contributed, the school gym features a painting of him. When we talk to our pupils about the qualities of character that he possesses, we frequently quote him. His record for long jump has never been surpassed. He truly is the ideal example for us to follow, and I will always think well of him.
