‘Little Bukayo always had a ball at his feet’
SOME of the biggest cheers for England tonight will come from a cul-de-sac in West London.
Proud neighbours in Melrose Close, Greenford, yesterday recalled ‘lovely, polite’ young Bukayo Saka, who would practise for hours outside their homes as a boy.
The 21-year- old sensation, who scored twice in England’s barnstorming opening match, was an Astar student at school and spent Sundays at a Pentecostal church.
But whenever he could, he was out in the close, kicking a ball.
Former next-door neighbour Sagar Kagitha said: ‘He was practising all the time. Sometimes a ball would fly into my garden, so he and his older brother used to pop around and knock to get the ball, or I’d throw it back. They were always so polite.’
Mr Kagitha, 40, added: ‘I remember Bukayo was very small, very short, but always playing football, going to school and going to church. They were a lovely family. Very respectful.’
Saka was born in London to Nigerian parents, accountant mother Adenike and father Yomi. He first appeared for Gareth Southgate’s team in 2020 and when he was one of three players to miss a penalty in the Euros final last year, he was subjected to vile racist abuse. But Saka has bounced back to show no fear on the world’s biggest stage.
His childhood home is a semidetached, four- storey extended house, and from the age of three he was playing football outside with his father and older brother Abayomi.
It was only after they left that most of the 16 families on the estate realised the quiet schoolboy had become a football megastar, after being taken on by Arsenal’s youth
academy. Another neighbour told the Mail yesterday: ‘I’m a lifelong Arsenal fan and I used to speak to Bukayo’s father Yomi all the time, and I never had a clue his son was playing for them.’
At Greenford High School, Saka gained four A-stars and three As in his GCSEs, and in evenings and at weekends his parents ferried him to football practice.
The family sold their house in October 2019, swapping it for a £2.3million mansion in Hertfordshire, just as Saka turned 18.
The family may have left the area, but one cherished memento of Bukayo’s childhood remains — his old bicycle.
The man who now lives in the Sakas’ home said he discovered the child’s Apollo Sublime bicycle among several items the family left behind. ‘I have told my wife I am going to keep it,’ said the new resident. ‘One day he might be a World Cup winner and I can sell it for a lot of money.’