His name, loosely translated, means “adds happiness.” OUR Bukayo Saka since yesterday, he has several reasons to feel happier because, although he is only 22 years old, he has seen all his dreams come true.

So the kid, who once even had posters of some of his current teammates in his room, is now making more money than they are, and is also on a relatively small list of the most “expensive” in the Premier League, which you can meet among others Casemiro, Jack Grealish and Kevin De Bruyne.

“Dreams do not come true overnight, they take time. This club has been my family since I was 8 years old. He gave me everything and I gave him everything,” Saka said shortly after signing the contract, probably wanting to… troll himself as his own dreams came true much faster than he expected.

Despite being only 22 years old, he is regarded as one of the best players not only at Arsenal, but throughout the Premier League, while other teams from the island and other major leagues have also been knocking on his door throughout period of negotiations.

“Retaining our best young players is fundamental to further improvement and Bukayo is already an important part of the current and future squad,” Arteta said, adding, “Not only is he talented, he is an attractive personality loved by all. All credit goes to him and his family for all their efforts that got him to this level.”

Of course, as is usually the case on such occasions, Saka did not follow the path strewn with rose petals.

The son of immigrants from Nigeria, he had a difficult childhood. Bullying and racist attacks were part of his daily life for some time, and they followed him into his professional career. A more typical example is the hours and days that followed a missed penalty in the Euro 2020 final between England and Italy.

Saka, along with Marcus Rushford and Jadon Sancho, were practically put on the wall as they were viciously attacked, and the police even arrested eleven people who even threatened the physical integrity of these players through social networks. . Characteristically, in a few hours, 207 posts of racist content appeared on Saki’s “wall”, while 137 accounts were located outside the UK.

It is logical, therefore, that a child who fell many times learned to get up just as many times. Saka also withstood the pressure of the fatal penalty that cost England their first Euro, he also withstood what followed and came out even stronger at the end of the day. What he probably hates is not wearing an Arsenal jersey, which made him close his ears to the sirens who approached him from the Premier League as well as from other leagues, and stay at the Emirates despite that in the final of this year’s race, he and his teammates were left with bitterness that, although they were very close to winning the title, he lost in the last matches and returned to Manchester City.

Perhaps one of the reasons that made him say “yes” to a new contract, in addition to big money, is Mikel Arteta. It’s not often that a coach refers to a 22-year-old player with words that the Spanish coach used. “This is the dream of every coach. He has incredible maturity for his age,” said Arteta, who wants to lay the groundwork for Arsenal to finally be able to drink from the spring in the new season.

OUR Bukayo Sakawas born on September 5, 2001. His parents were immigrants from Nigeria and they gave a new member of his family the name Bukayo, which means “adds happiness” and is given to both boys and girls.

From a very early age, he showed his vocation in football, although some had a different opinion. “He was on the high school football team, but he also liked to play basketball. I have made many attempts to change my mind in order to dedicate myself to it. However, I couldn’t change his mind. From that moment on, I knew that Arsenal and football had just won,” a gym teacher he had at school once told ESPN, and thankfully he didn’t convince him.

Arsenal “discovered” him when he was only seven years old and immediately took him to their academy. In a short time, Saka won the attention of all the coaches who saw in him a player with great speed and no less good technical training. But one of them was the one who believed that he had a talent in front of him that could develop into a very great footballer. It was Freddie Leuenberg. The Swedish manager and former Arsenal ace took Saku by the hand, helped him fix his weaknesses, taught him how to play all the left wing, and it was he who pushed Unai Emery to give him his first chance at the professional level at the age of just 17 against Vorska Poltava in the Europa League.

Saki Lünberg has a second father. “He has been with me since I was 15 years old. He has seen me do amazing things. But he always told me that I should be humble and keep working because he thinks I can become one of the best in the world. He has been a player for many years and knows how I feel. When you hear something from an Arsenal legend, it’s definitely very important,” he said at one point about his mentor. After his debut, the young man had even more opportunities. In 2018/19, despite playing at full-back, he scored a total of 14 goals in all competitions for the second team, paving the way for him to establish himself at Arsenal, where he is now on the bench substitute was Mikel Arteta. .
History has already begun to be written…