Jeremy Doku step up from being a promising youngster at Anderlecht to a key player for both Manchester City and Belgium has been largely built on the strongest part of his game: his ability to beat defenders with the ball at his feet.
Right from his days playing on the streets of Antwerp, it quickly became clear that the winger had a dribbling style that set him apart from his contemporaries.
Doku himself believes that this natural gift has been shaped by family influences and his idols within the game.
Doku on his childhood dribbling ability
“It’s a gift, I didn’t train it,” the Manchester City winger admits to FourFourTwo. “I realised that football was the purpose that the Lord has put on my life. It’s a talent that has been given to me.”
Sometimes, when he was growing up, that talent manifested itself in humorous ways. “At a young age, I liked to dribble, and I got a lot of criticism from other parents because I didn’t pass the ball to their children!” he smiles.
“That was sometimes frustrating for my parents as well, on the side watching the game, because the other parents were always complaining. But then they saw that I was helping the team, that I was just using the talent that’s been given to me, and that it was working out.”
Doku is the biggest star of Belgium’s next generation and continues to play with the same passion and joy that he’s had since childhood.
“I used to play a lot on the street with my brother – I played futsal too, and it all contributed to who you see now,” he explains. “Now I try to reproduce that on the pitch. With my soul.”
Doku is of Ghanaian descent, and it was during a family trip to the West African country that his love for football began. “I think I was five years old, we were in Ghana and my brother was playing with some people,” he explains.
“I wanted to play, but they said that I was too young and I’d hurt myself, so I was crying and angry. But my dad told me, ‘Don’t worry, when we’re back in Belgium, I’ll put you in a team.’
“The neighbourhood I grew up in was a bit rough – he didn’t want me to go onto the streets and do bad stuff. But he saw I was quite good, and I started to love playing.”
Doku’s heroes were two of the best dribblers of the past couple of decades. “My favourite was always Messi – to this day, I love the way he plays,” he tells us.
“In Belgium, Eden Hazard was the guy I could see some of myself in – I wanted to have that role in the national team.”