Bukayo Saka #7

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Feels like a long-term fixture in England squads, having made his debut six years ago, but is still only 24. His first name, chosen by his Nigerian grandmother, means “adds to happiness”; his nickname, “Little Chilli”, was given to him by former teammate Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang due to his spicy shooting in training. “He just kept calling me it and then it became a thing, and now it's a big thing.” In 2024 Nandos brought out an official Peri Peri Saka sauce, with Saka saying: “I’ve been going to Nando’s since I was little so to have my own Peri-Peri sauce is quite mad.” During three months out with a torn hamstring last year he bought a new puppy, Tucker the cockapoo, and got stuck into reading, with one book in particular, Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, striking a chord. “Sometimes I’d think: ‘Oh, am I going to come back in the best shape?’ Or, in the past: ‘What could I have done to prevent injury?’ But all that is not necessary. One of the best things I took from the book is to always ask yourself: what’s necessary in this moment right now? And try to live that way.”

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