Why it was always Arsenal for 'part-time barista' Saka

The Football Interview is a new series in which the biggest names in sport and entertainment join host Kelly Somers for bold and in-depth conversations about the nation's favourite sport.

We'll explore mindset and motivation, and talk about defining moments, career highs and personal reflections. The Football Interview brings you the person behind the player.

Interviews will drop on Saturdays across BBC iPlayer, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website. This week it will be shown on BBC One at 23:45 GMT in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Bukayo Saka joined Arsenal's academy at the age of seven.

Now 24, he is a first-team mainstay - scoring 76 goals in 277 appearances - and firm favourite among the Emirates faithful.

Part of the Arsenal team that reached the Europa League final in 2019 and won the FA Cup in 2020, he also helped England to back-to-back European Championship finals.

Saka could add another highlight to his reel this season, with Arsenal top of the Premier League as they chase a first league title since 2004.

And the club are confident the England winger will sign a new contract.

Speaking on Friday, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said: "I am very aware that he wants to continue with us. I think it's a very healthy and powerful relationship.

"The journey that he has had at the club, and what he has become, is something we want to maintain. I think that is something that is going to leave a legacy at this club and he needs to fulfil that role."

Before Arteta's comments, Saka sat down with Kelly Somers to talk about why it was always going to be Arsenal, spending time away from football, and his hopes of becoming an expert barista.

Kelly Somers: Why football?

Bukayo Saka: Football is happiness to me, so from the moment I realised that it existed, it was all I ever wanted to do.

Kelly: Was there ever any chance of it being anything else?

Bukayo: Not in my head. Maybe in my parents' - obviously they tried to make sure I had a plan B, which is, of course, sensible - but in my head, you know, it was only football.

Kelly: What is your first memory of playing the game?

Bukayo: Playing in my back garden with my brother and my dad. It was 2 v 1, actually. It was me against them, and they're both older than me. I would never lose. I would not accept it. I would cry, I would do anything, and that started young.

Kelly: How young are we talking?

Bukayo: We're talking maybe four or five years old.

Kelly: Can you remember the first team that you played for?

Bukayo: Greenford Celtic. I remember everything, from the kit to the games. The kit was green stripes with white stripes - it had like a Celtic logo. We used to play in a local park, after the game - boots muddied completely and you'd have to slap them against the trees. Proper football. I remember everything. It was a really important chapter of my life and I enjoyed it.

Kelly: What kind of age were you when you joined the team?

Bukayo: I would have been maybe six.

Kelly: At what point did you think, 'OK, I'm quite good at this'?

Bukayo: You can be humble and also believe that you're good as well. I think there's nothing wrong with both and they can both be together. And I think I had that from young, but I just never thought about it. I was just enjoying the game and I was good at it. So it made it even more fun.

Kelly: What position were you back then?

Bukayo: I was always going to be a winger, I'd say. Obviously that was the first position I played - on the left wing - when I was growing up.

Kelly: It's always been Arsenal, hasn't it? Can you remember when you found out that you were going to be signing here?

Bukayo: I remember my dad telling me I got scouted because it was different... you got a scout card - scouts would have come to watch you at a local team... and they gave my dad a card and said: 'Call me, we'll set up a trial.' So I remember first coming into Hale End - my first trial. I didn't even feel an ounce of fear. I was just like, 'I'm just going to play football, just enjoy it' and I played so good. I think I trialled at the B team. I played so good they put me in the A team, and from there signed and I've been at Arsenal ever since.

Kelly: Was it always Arsenal for you?

Bukayo: Yeah. Well at that point of my career, the decisions were more made by your parents. You're just a kid, you don't really, do you know what I'm saying? My dad made it clear to me 'Arsenal is the club I want you at', and I said: 'OK, let's go.'

Kelly: Why did he want you to come here? What was it about Arsenal?

Bukayo: He believed in Arsenal, believed in the pathway, and it was visible. You could see players, and obviously Arsene Wenger at the time - how much he believed in the academy, how much he wanted to use the academy, and also the class that Arsenal have and the football that they play. So all of that was just perfect for him and he just wanted me to be here.

Kelly: How special is it being an Arsenal fan, playing for Arsenal?

Bukayo: It's just a dream come true. Obviously growing up, going to the stadium and watching Arsenal play in so many different games and to now being the one on the pitch and all the people watching you and all the stuff that comes with it. Family that used to talk about Arsenal... and now it's you. There's so many different aspects of it that makes it so beautiful and I'm just enjoying every moment still.

Kelly: So did you used to come and watch Arsenal as a kid?

Bukayo: Of course, yeah.

Kelly: And I bet now you must have so many ticket requests for all the games?

Bukayo: Ask the boys!

Kelly: Can you remember a time, even going through the academy, where you thought, 'I'm going to make it to the first team'?

Bukayo: I remember being in the changing room one time - we just played a game, our team was so good. We just smashed the team. The coach came in, I think it was Greg Lincoln, and he came in and said: 'Listen, boys... look around... it's an unbelievable team, but only one of you is going to make it, maybe even two.' And I just remember that day just thinking, 'oh my God, it needs to be me. It has to be me'.

Kelly: And I guess that's what a lot of young boys and girls don't realise, isn't it? It's such a small percentage that make it.

Bukayo: Yeah. I don't think maybe coaches, they won't tell all the boys because some boys, it can put fear into them. It might make them a bit less confident. But for me, it just made it so clear to me that this is not going to be all perfect and roses forever. You have to work for this and, for me, it helped me a lot.

Kelly: Which coach or former team-mate would you say has had the biggest impact on your career?

Bukayo: It's tough to say. I always speak about David Luiz and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang - they both helped me a lot coming into the team. The way they welcomed me, for me... I was quite quiet... obviously coming into Arsenal, these were like my heroes, players that I was watching from the stands and I get to play with them now, so it was a bit of a different experience for me and I didn't know how to handle it. I didn't want to rub anyone up the wrong way, so I just preferred to be a bit more quiet. But these guys... they welcomed me - it helped me feel myself - and gave me advice, and gave me confidence, that push. You could see it when I was on the pitch, the confidence I was playing with. It was definitely helped by them and obviously the rest of my team-mates as well - that helped me too.

Kelly: Let's get to know Bukayo Saka the person a little bit better. What's your full name?

Bukayo: My name is Bukayo Moses Ayoyinka Temidayo Saka.

Kelly: That's because of your Nigerian roots, isn't it? Are you proud of those?

Bukayo: I'm very proud of those. Both my parents grew up in Nigeria, so a lot of their values are instilled in me.

Kelly: Talk me through a typical day in your childhood then. Who was at home?

Bukayo: Being at home I just remember, obviously, waking up, we'd have breakfast. My mum would normally have gone to work, my dad was always around. And if he had to go to work, it was just me and my brother, but they'd always leave us breakfast. Hot cross bun, sausage, like a sausage cut up. Frankfurter... Frankfurter and some ketchup. That was my breakfast. You cut the hot cross bun, you cut the sausage up, put it in the hot cross bun, then put ketchup, then close the hot cross bun. Unreal, unreal. Credit to my dad, my mum, I don't know whose idea it was.

Kelly: You don't still have that now, do you?

Bukayo: Nah, not any more. It helped me growing up though.

Kelly: What were you like at school?

Bukayo: I was quite bright at school. I felt I was able to take the information on quite quickly. I was good at understanding it, all the different subjects that they were explaining and teaching. So, yeah, I would say I was a good learner.

Kelly: And your GCSEs, you've said before what you got, but just remind me what your grades were?

Bukayo: Oh, man, I think it was around four A stars and four As. I can't remember exactly, but it's online somewhere. It was a long time ago.

Kelly: Who's the first person you speak to after a game?

Bukayo: Depends how I'm feeling. I'm not really a big phone-call person. Normally I would text my brother. I get a lot of texts, especially if you win or you score... a lot of people congratulate you, which is nice.

Kelly: What's an ideal day off look like for you?

Bukayo: Ideal day off - wake up in the morning, go for a walk by myself.

Kelly: Do you like time to yourself?

Bukayo: Yeah. Recently, more than ever, I've liked going for walks with nature, I just relax. I think it's so peaceful, it's nice. Come back, have some breakfast, and then probably go into London, just get some food with my closest people - something I like doing - going to restaurants and stuff like that. If I have even more energy, maybe some shopping, and, yeah, just enjoying that side of things if it's a full day off.

Kelly: What are your hobbies?

Bukayo: Football. Recently, I like making coffees. I'm into my coffee era, yeah. I think I'm a part-time barista now. I'm trying to learn how to do the art. That's hard. It's so hard but I'm getting there, I'm getting better. I haven't been able to draw anything yet. I'm going to take lessons soon.

Kelly: What's your proudest moment of your career today?

Bukayo: I think I'd say where I am now. You know, the circumstances I grew up in and the ups and downs and the challenges, setbacks or whatever that I've dealt with and to still be here today and in the position I'm in, going strong, still focused, motivated and happy. I think it's probably something that gets overlooked and something I can definitely be proud of. As I get a bit older, you understand that sometimes you can't always be fully invested in football 24/7. You need to have a good balance and give your mind some time to switch off as well and enjoy the other aspects of life too.

Kelly: At what point did you get to realise that?

Bukayo: I think it was last season when I got injured. Before then, I was almost like on autopilot - game after game, recovery, game. And I didn't really take in anything else. But obviously, when you get injured, you can't do what you love, you can't play football. So I was literally in the brace, on the crutches, for almost a month. And you have to entertain yourself in other ways. So it just opened up that part of my brain to different sides of things. And I think since then, it's been like, there's a bit more to life than football. It's not just football, but at the same time, football is my life. So it's just trying to find a balance because I've still [got] the same dedication, the same motivation, but just trying to find that little break and switch off as well at the same time.

Kelly: If you could only achieve one more thing in your life, what would it be?

Bukayo: All the trophies - Arsenal and England. It's definitely something I want to achieve in my career.

Kelly: How would you describe the Bukayo Saka sitting in front of me?

Bukayo: I think I explained a bit earlier the natural evolution. The player and person I was, what was expected of me and the life I lived then, is completely different to the one now. Naturally, as you go from there to there, you learn different things, you mature, you grow, stuff like that. So, yeah, I think that's probably the biggest difference.

Kelly: You still like having fun though, don't you? Because I know you're one of the jokers in the dressing room as well.

Bukayo: Yeah, it's the most important thing, I think. Have fun, smile, laugh every day. I think you can't miss that. No matter what, you can't miss that.