Daniel Sturridge

Youth career

Daniel Sturridge began his football career at the age of seven at local club Cadbury Athletic, before being scouted, and subsequently signed by the youth academy of Aston Villa. According to Villa academy director Bryan Jones, Sturridge's father Michael was given a part-time scouting role by Villa but made demands that his role was made full-time or he would leave for Coventry City and take his son with him. Sturridge did leave Villa in 2002 to move to Coventry City, resulting in Aston Villa putting a case to the Premier League 'poaching committee' but it was refused. From Coventry, Sturridge subsequently joined Manchester City's Academy in 2003. A Football League committee later ordered Manchester City to pay Coventry £30,000 compensation, with further payments up to a maximum of £170,000 based upon appearances and international honours. The following year, he was the leading scorer and voted player of the tournament (the only other person to achieve this was Argentine footballer Carlos Tevez) as City won the Nike Cup, the world's largest under-15 tournament. At 16, he played for Manchester City Youth during their 2006 FA Youth Cup run. The youngest player in the team, he scored four goals en route to the final, and another two in the final, though they were insufficient to prevent a 3–2 aggregate defeat to Liverpool. That summer, he signed his first professional contract, which came into effect when he turned 17.

Manchester City

From the…

Youth

Sturridge has represented England at U16, U17, U18, U19, U20 and U21 levels. He scored twice against the Netherlands for the under-18 team in 2007, netting again in the Under-19 European Championships against the Netherlands. He scored the only goal for England U21 in a 1–1 draw against Greece U-21 in Greece and scored his second U-21 goal in the 1–0 win over Portugal. He was named in the England under-21 squad for the 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. England was eliminated in the group stages. Sturridge was selected to the team of the tournament.

Senior

On 6 November 2011, Sturridge was handed his maiden England call-up by being named in the England squad for the friendlies against Spain and Sweden, after excelling for Chelsea. He was an unused substitute in a 1–0 victory against Spain, but Fabio Capello insisted that Sturridge would play against Sweden the following Tuesday and did, as he made his debut coming on as a second-half substitute for Theo Walcott. He made his second appearance against the Netherlands coming on in the first half for the injured Steven Gerrard and caused the Dutch defence problems throughout the match and earned the man of the match award for his efforts during the match. He scored his first senior goal for England in his fifth match on 22 March 2013, after coming on for Wayne Rooney in an 8–0 away win against San Marino in World Cup qualification. The goal meant he had made an appearance and scored for all levels…

Former Chelsea manager André Villas-Boas said, "Daniel offers a few of the characteristics I had with Hulk when I was with him in Porto... He is an extremely quick player, and he has technique at pace." Sturridge said he preferred to play as a centre-forward rather than as a winger: "I do still see myself as a striker but I am doing a job for the team and I'm enjoying doing it." As Sturridge transitioned from a wider role into a striker when he joined Liverpool, Sturridge also said that he likens himself on striker Thierry Henry, who "played wide for Juventus and then went to Arsenal and played as a centre-forward." Although he rarely played for Chelsea as a striker, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers played Sturridge as a striker in most matches. His ability to still drop between lines and pull wide and attack defences, similar to former strike partner Luis Suárez's playing-style, has led to Rodgers describing him as "what I call a 'nine-and-a-half".

Daniel Andre Sturridge was born on 1 September 1989 in Birmingham, West Midlands. He is the son of former footballer Mike Sturridge, and the nephew of former footballers Dean and Simon Sturridge. Sturridge is of Jamaican descent, with all of his grandparents being born in Jamaica. He is a relative of former Jamaican footballer Calvin Stewart. Sturridge was a supporter of Derby County when he was younger because his uncle Dean played for them, but once he left, Sturridge started supporting Arsenal instead.