Liverpool star who went from rags to riches
Football
By
Mirror
| Jul 17, 2018
Daniel Sturridge has revealed his role in helping £59million new boy Naby Keita settle in at Liverpool.
The striker recently returned to Anfield following a six-month loan stint at relegated West Brom.
And Sturridge has since played a key role behind the scenes in welcoming Keita on Merseyside - as his new dressing room neighbour.
"I'm sat next to Keita in the changing room so we share a lot of jokes together," he said.
"Fabinho is a really good guy too. Both are settling in very well and really good additions to the squad."
"We're looking forward to what will hopefully be a successful one and everyone is excited about it, including myself."
Keita’s rise from the shanty-town environment of Koleya is the kind of story which gives hope to thousands of football-crazy kids across Africa.
While plenty of his new Anfield team-mates will have been pampered and cosseted at plush academies, where an ample supply of new boots, training kits and hefty pay-packets are the order of the day, Keita hit the streets to hone his skills.
And the French-speaking star recalls how even cars driving down the road didn’t stop his street games growing up.
“When we were little we played in the middle of the street and even when cars passed by we wouldn’t stop playing,” Keita told Kick-Off in Germany. “It just meant we had to play smarter to avoid the cars and that helped you become better!
“In the street was where you learned your football, playing with boys and men much bigger, so I would say that I had to start to look out for myself.
“From very early on in my childhood I wanted to be a professional footballer.”
In a poverty-stricken town like Koleya, dreams of hitting the big time usually remain just that.
Even though Keita’s talent was special, his parents couldn’t see a way forward as they had no money to fund the gamble of sending him to Europe.