Bukayo Saka reveals the audacious shirt he wore to his Arsenal trial aged SEVEN – as Gunners’ baby-faced assassin names the legend who has helped him master his ‘confidence and belief’
Bukayo Saka has long been considered Arsenal royalty but the Gunners winger has revealed his place on the throne stretches back even to his earliest steps at the club.
When Saka went on trial at Arsenal’s Hale End academy at the age of seven, he wore a shirt that his dad had bought for him that had the nickname ‘King Kayo’ emblazoned across the back.
In an interview with Men in Blazers Media Network, Saka said: ‘When he first bought the shirt, I didn’t know whether I wanted to wear it or not because it was a trial and you don’t want to turn up with ‘King’ on your back.
‘But my dad pushed me and said, no, believe in yourself. Go for it. In the end, I just did. After a while, when you’re playing football, you forget about it anyway.’
Turns out his dad Yomi was right all along as Saka has gone on to become one of Arsenal’s most important players. Aged 24, he is already in the top 10 of the club’s all-time Premier League goal scorers.
An FA Cup winner and two-time Arsenal player of the year, Saka could well end the season as a Premier League champion. By the end of the summer, perhaps, even a World Cup winner.
Video supplied by Men In Blazers Media Network
When Saka went on trial at Arsenal’s Hale End academy at the age of seven, he wore a shirt that his dad had bought for him that had the nickname ‘King Kayo’ emblazoned across the back
Speaking to Men in Blazers Media Network Saka described how he was reluctant to wear the shirt – but his dad pushed him to keep it on, telling the youngster to ‘believe in yourself’
For now, though, as he sits in Nando’s – ‘this is my happy place, my happy food’ – he ranks his greatest achievement in the game as seeing his face on the side of the PERi-PERi Saka sauce. ‘This is No1, I think,’ laughs Saka.
Saka is still seen by many as a baby-faced assassin, one of football’s Mr Nice Guys. Arsenal legend Cesc Fabregas once described Saka as ‘a bit of a bluffer’.
‘He makes opponents think he’s too nice but when he’s on the pitch he’s a different animal,’ said Fabregas.
‘There’s a fine line between being nice and wanting to win,’ said Saka. ‘You can’t be nice at the detriment of winning.
‘When you get on to the pitch, it’s a battle. You against me. When I am in daily life, I am not battling anyone so I don’t need to be how I am on the pitch.’
Saka has been through more than many footballers his age, not only twice a runner-up at the Euros but also the victim of atrocious racial abuse after his penalty miss against Italy in 2021. None of that, nor the outside noise or the pressure as Arsenal look to win their first title in 22 years after so many near-misses under Mikel Arteta, has stopped him enjoying football in the same boyish way as when he rocked up to Hale Green with ‘King Kayo’ on his back.
‘The day I don’t want to watch football, I don’t want to talk to my friends about football, that would be the day where I start to sense I don’t really love football anymore,’ says Saka. ‘That day hasn’t come and I don’t think it will.
Saka credits Thierry Henry as the person who has helped him most: ‘The past few years telling me different things and helping me on and off the pitch, how to deal with certain things’
‘That (other) stuff is all separate from football. Football is going out on the pitch, having the ball at your feet and working on your craft. The other stuff is not football. The problem is the noises are getting bigger year by year. That’s the problem. It’s probably the toughest thing for the modern day footballer to try to navigate the noise but the actual football itself will always be football.’
Saka credits another Gunners icon as the person who has taught him most about how to improve on both those fronts.
‘Thierry Henry,’ says Saka. ‘The past few years telling me different things and helping me on and off the pitch, how to deal with certain things. Confidence and belief on the pitch, that’s what he had in abundance, he almost put fear into the defenders without even touching the ball. If I can get to his level, which is very difficult because he’s probably the best player to play in the Premier League.’
