English Premier League - Player Profile: Daniel Sturridge
Sturridge is a junior English international footballer, who currently plays for Chelsea F.C in London. He was born in Birmingham, England and started off his football career with Manchester City. While at City, Sturridge developed into one of England’s best young strikers, he played in two F.A Cup youth finals for Manchester City.
Sturridge’s first football club as a youth footballer was Aston Villa but he moved from Villa to Coventry City in 2002, when he was just thirteen years old, he joined Manchester City’s football academy in 2003 after spending only a year in Coventry. In his first year at the club, he led City’s youth team to their first ever triumph in the Nike Cup, which is widely known as the football’s largest under-15 tournament. When Daniel was just 16 he played for Manchester United’s youth team in their F.A Cup youth run. Despite being the youngest player in the side, he scored four goals on their road to the final.
He scored another two in the final but City lost the final to Liverpool by three goals to two. In the summer that ensued the youth F.A Cup final, City managed to convince Sturridge to sign his first professional football contract with them, although as per FIFA’s regulations the contract only became void once the young English striker turned 17.
Sturridge started to train with Man City’s senior team from the start of the 2006-2007 season and his training dedication earned him a reserve team start through which he scored his first reserve team hatrick of goals for City. He then earned himself a place on the Manchester City bench, in their premier league tie against Reading F.C in February of 2007.
He came off the bench against Reading but didn’t score any goals for his club side. Danny as Daniel is known amongst football fans, also made his second substitute appearance of the season later on in the same year but he sustained a hip injury which ruled him out of action for the remainder of 2007.
Sturridge’s first senior team goal for City came in an F.A Cup match against Sheffield United on 27th of January 2008. He gained his full first team debut against Derby County but his appearances in the first team for City were inconsistent and Sturridge continued to impress in the blue’s youth squad, which again reached the F.A youth Cup only to win it this time around as Sturridge scored for them in the second leg of the pen-ultimate match.
On May 1st of 2009, after Danny had made 16 appearances for City in the 2008-2009 Premier League season, the young Englishman had managed to score four times for city in the regular season. However, at the end of the season Sturridge was voted City’s young player of the season.
On the 3rd of July 2009, Chelsea managed to sign Sturridge on a four year contract from City. The deal between the two English clubs is considered to be around 3.5 million pounds, with initial payments depending on the number of appearances Sturridge makes for the London club. In his first season at Chelsea, Sturridge made 18 appearances and scored five goals. He is seen by many as a future England national team striker and is also considered to be a special striker because of his pace and fantastic ability to finish off difficult chances.
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