Daniel Sturridge is a 20-year-old forward who began his youth career at Aston Villa in 1998. However, in 2002 he joined Coventry briefly before moving to the Manchester City academy in 2003. As a result, City were instructed to pay Coventry £30,000 plus future incentives. At the age of 15 he won the Nike Cup with the club and was voted Most Valuable Player along with being the tournament’s leading goalscorer. A year later he was a part of the Manchester City team that reached the FA Youth Cup final. Sturridge scored twice in the final although the team eventually lost 3-2 to Liverpool to finish as runners up.
From the start of the 2006/07 season, Sturridge began training with the City first team. A hat-trick in a reserve game saw him make a substitute appearance in February 2007 against Reading. A month later he made another appearance but a long term injury kept him out for the rest of the year. His first goal came in January 2008 during an FA Cup match against Sheffield United and was followed by his first league goal a few days later on his full debut against Derby County. He also led City to victory in the FA Youth Cup final after the heartbreak of several years before. The 2008/09 season saw Sturridge make 16 appearances in total for the first team scoring four goals and contributing three assists in the process. However, he left in the summer after failing to agree a new contract and ended up signing for Chelsea with a fee agreed via tribunal. Sturridge made several substitute appearances in the club’s tour to the USA and made his first league appearance for the team as a substitute in the away victory over Sunderland.
Sturridge has represented England at U17, U19, U20 and U21 level. He made six appearances for the U17s scoring five goals along the way. He managed one goal in his three appearances for the U19s and a goal in his only outing for the U20s. Sturridge has so far played once for the U21 squad and scored in the team’s 1-0 victory over Greece.
