On 16 June 2016, in Lens, England trailed Wales 1-0 at half-time of their second group game at Euro 2016. Roy Hodgson sent on Daniel Andre Sturridge at the break, and in stoppage time the Birmingham-born forward scored the 2-1 winner. Born on 1 September 1989 in Birmingham, Sturridge won the Premier League and the Champions League with Chelsea, led the line alongside Luis Suárez in Liverpool’s 2014 title challenge and won 26 England caps, scoring eight goals.
Football ran in the family: his father, Mike Sturridge, and his uncles Dean and Simon Sturridge were all footballers. He started at Cadbury Athletic in 1995, joined the Aston Villa youth system the following year and stayed until 2002, then spent a season at Coventry City before moving to Manchester City’s academy in 2003. A Football League committee ordered City to pay Coventry £30,000 in compensation, rising to a possible £170,000. He scored six goals in the 2006 FA Youth Cup run, two of them in a final City lost 3-2 on aggregate to Liverpool; in 2008 he scored in the first leg of the final as City won the competition. He made his first-team debut off the bench against Reading in February 2007 and scored his first senior goal in an FA Cup tie against Sheffield United on 27 January 2008. He left City with six goals in 32 appearances.
Chelsea and the Bolton loan
On 3 July 2009 he signed a four-year contract with Chelsea. On 14 January 2010 a tribunal set the initial fee at £3.5 million, with add-ons that could take it to £8.3 million. His Premier League debut for the club came as a substitute against Sunderland on 18 August 2009, and his first season ended with the league and FA Cup double, including a substitute appearance in the 2010 FA Cup final. In January 2011 he joined Bolton Wanderers on loan for the rest of the season and scored eight goals in twelve games. Back at Stamford Bridge, 2011-12 brought a second FA Cup and the Champions League; he was an unused substitute in the final against Bayern in Munich. He left Chelsea with 24 goals in 96 matches.
Liverpool and the partnership with Suárez
Liverpool signed him on 2 January 2013 for an undisclosed fee reported to be around £12 million. Four days later he scored seven minutes into his debut, an FA Cup third-round tie at Mansfield Town. In 2013-14 he scored 21 league goals, second in the scoring chart behind Suárez’s 31, as Liverpool finished runners-up. Injuries followed: a thigh problem in 2014, hip surgery in May 2015 and knee and hamstring trouble in 2015-16. On 18 May 2016 he opened the scoring in the Europa League final in Basel, which Sevilla won 3-1. In January 2018 he was loaned to West Bromwich Albion, making six appearances without a goal before a hamstring injury on 12 February. Back at Anfield, he was part of the squad that won the 2019 Champions League; he did not play in the final but received a winner’s medal. He finished with 67 goals in 160 games for the club.
England and Great Britain
Fabio Capello gave him his debut on 15 November 2011 at Wembley, as a replacement for Theo Walcott in a 1-0 friendly win over Sweden. At the London 2012 Olympics he played for Great Britain, scoring in a 3-1 win over the United Arab Emirates and getting the only goal against Uruguay, before missing a penalty in the quarter-final shootout defeat to South Korea. On 14 June 2014, in Manaus, he scored England’s goal in a 2-1 World Cup defeat to Italy, and two years later came the winner against Wales in France. He ended his international career with 26 caps and eight goals.
Honours
With Manchester City he won the 2008 FA Youth Cup. With Chelsea he won the 2009-10 Premier League, the FA Cup in 2010 and 2012 and the 2011-12 Champions League. With Liverpool he won the 2018-19 Champions League. Across his club career he played 328 matches and scored 112 goals.
Trabzonspor, the ban and Perth Glory
On 21 August 2019 he signed a three-year deal with Turkish club Trabzonspor. A month earlier, on 18 July 2019, the Football Association had banned him for six weeks, four of them suspended, for breaching betting rules. On 2 March 2020 his contract was terminated by mutual consent after seven goals in 16 games, and the same day an appeal board extended the ban to four months worldwide and fined him £150,000. Australian club Perth Glory announced his signing on 1 October 2021; he made his debut as an 84th-minute substitute against Adelaide United on 20 November 2021 and left the club in June 2022 after six appearances without scoring.
