Daniel Sturridge

Coming on as a 71st-minute substitute, Sturridge scored in the 88th minute of the match taking advantage of a header by André Ooijer.

Daniel Andre Sturridge (born 1 September 1989) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker.

He is currently a free agent.

Since 2023, he has worked as a television pundit for Sky Sports.

Daniel Andre Sturridge was born on 1 September 1989 in Birmingham, West Midlands.

Sturridge began his playing career at the age of six at local club Cadbury Athletic, before being scouted, and subsequently signed by the youth academy of Aston Villa.

According to Villa academy director Bryan Jones, Sturridge's father Michael was given a part-time scouting role by Villa but made demands that his role was made full-time or he would leave for Coventry City and take his son with him.

Sturridge was scouted by Aston Villa and played for a number of years in their younger academy sides before moving to Coventry City in 2002.

Sturridge did leave Villa in 2002 to move to Coventry City, resulting in Aston Villa putting a case to the Premier League 'poaching committee' but it was refused.

He then signed for Manchester City in 2003.

He continued his development at City and played in two FA Youth Cup finals.

From Coventry, Sturridge subsequently joined Manchester City's Academy in 2003.

A Football League committee later ordered Manchester City to pay Coventry £30,000 compensation, with further payments up to a maximum of £170,000 based upon appearances and international honours.

The following year, he was the leading scorer and voted player of the tournament (the only other person to achieve this was Argentine footballer Carlos Tevez) as City won the Nike Cup, the world's largest under-15 tournament.

At 16, he played for Manchester City Youth during their 2006 FA Youth Cup run.

The youngest player in the team, he scored four goals en route to the final, and another two in the final, though they were insufficient to prevent a 3–2 aggregate defeat to Liverpool.

That summer, he signed his first professional contract, which came into effect when he turned 17.

From the start of the 2006–07 season, Sturridge began to train with the City first team.

He made his first-team debut in the 2007–08 season, becoming the only player to score in the FA Youth Cup, FA Cup and Premier League in the same season.

A hat-trick in a reserve match was rewarded by a place on the substitutes' bench for the senior team's match with Reading in February 2007.

He duly made his debut from the bench, replacing Georgios Samaras for the final quarter-hour.

He made a second substitute appearance a month later, but then suffered a hip injury which sidelined him for the remainder of 2007.

In the 2007–08 season, Sturridge became the only player ever to score in the Youth FA Cup, the FA Cup and the Premier League in the same season.

Sturridge scored his first goal for City on 27 January 2008 in an FA Cup match against Sheffield United, followed three days later by his first league goal on his full debut, against Derby County.

However, first-team opportunities were quite sporadic, so Sturridge continued to play for the youth team in the FA Youth Cup.

City again reached the final, with Sturridge the leading scorer in the competition.

This time City won the final, with Sturridge scoring in the first leg.

Sturridge contributed in the 2008–09 season with 26 appearances and scoring 4 goals.

On 28 December 2008, in a league match against Blackburn Rovers, City were trailing 2–0.

He left City in 2009 to sign for Chelsea, where he was loaned to Bolton Wanderers for the second half of the 2010–11 season.

After a successful spell at Bolton, scoring eight goals in 12 appearances, he returned to Chelsea for the 2011–12 season, winning the FA Cup and UEFA Champions League.

He made his debut for the senior team against Sweden in November 2011 and was selected for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2016, earning 28 England caps in total.

He also represented Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

He left Chelsea to join Liverpool in January 2013, where he formed an attacking partnership with Luis Suárez.

Liverpool scored more than 100 goals in the 2013–14 Premier League season with Sturridge scoring 21 goals, behind only Suárez on 31.

The following two seasons were curtailed by injuries, limiting Sturridge to very few appearances.

He scored the opening goal in the 2016 UEFA Europa League final, although Liverpool eventually lost the game to Sevilla.

He featured most often as a substitute in the next seasons under manager Jürgen Klopp, but was part of the UEFA Champions League-winning squad in 2019.

He subsequently had spells with Turkish Süper Lig club Trabzonspor and Australian A-League club Perth Glory.

Sturridge has represented England at all levels.