Bukayo Saka has become the benchmark against which gentlemanly conduct in the Premier league is tested. Since breaking into Arsenal’s first team, the 24 year old England star has won hearts both on and off the pitch with his humility and groundedness.
Despite the insane level of fame he has garnered both within Arsenal fans and the larger football following community, he has rarely ever been seen celebrating a goal in a grand or ostentatious manner. Instead he points to his teammates or signals the sky, and almost never makes himself the celebrator of his own vanity.
Many of Saka’s ex and current team mates have spoken about how Bukayo is the same person both on and off the field.
Which is why when his ex Arsenal team mate Alex Iwobi was asked about his character growing up, it was not surprising that he gave Saka a glowing recommendation.
Both Iwobi and Saka once enjoyed the superstar-to-be tag at Arsenal. Iwobi left the Emirates in an ugly 2019 exit to Everton. And after a few hiccups along the way, has finally found his footing at Fulham. Saka on the other hand, has more than lived up to his tag, earning the fond nickname “Star Boy” at Arsenal.
Iwobi and Saka are more than just ex-teammates. Both of their footballing journeys started at Arsenal’s youth academy in Hale End, London. Although Iwobi is five years elder to Saka, as time passed it became obvious to him and everyone that Saka was a special player in the making.
Speaking on the High Performance Podcast, Iwobi said – “He was very good, like in 1v1’s and when he would shoot and [we’d be like ohhhh! [gasp], it was an ohhh!! moment in training”.
Iwobi also pointed out that despite London’s ego heavy youth football scene, Saka was very “humble” and “chill”.
“There were a lot of egos coming through to train like in London, boys like ‘hey pass me the ball man’, but he never had that. He was always like, very humble, very chilled.”
Iwobi further established the fact that it was obvious very early, despite lacking the polish, that Saka was a player with a very high ceiling. He recounted. –
“But it was just very raw. We weren’t polished. I remember back then I said, Nah, this guy’s gonna be a player. He’s definitely going to be a talent. Cause in training, like, he was very good, but he was also very grounded.”
Alex Iwobi says Bukayo Saka never had the ego people often associate with London boys. He was always “very humble” and that “he’s still the same guy” 🤩 pic.twitter.com/tIRkuV4VZx
— Gooner Chris (@ArsenalN7) March 9, 2026
Although Iwobi and Saka are both Arsenal youth products, their time playing for Arsenal’s first time didn’t have any overlap. As Iwobi had to move to Everton around the time Saka started to make a serious claim for the first team.
However, whatever Iwobi saw was more than enough to convince him of Saka’s impending greatness.
