Sonny Pike
Pike in 2022
Personal information
Date of birth 1983 (age 4041)[1][2]
Place of birth Enfield, England
Youth career
Years Team
Enfield Colts
Enfield
1996 Leyton Orient
Stevenage Borough

Sonny Pike (born 1983) is an English former footballer who became famous at a young age for his talent, which saw him being compared to players regarded as among the greatest of all time, such as Diego Maradona and George Best.[3] Despite his early promise, Pike left the game at the age of 18 without ever having played professionally.[4]

Early life

Pike was born and raised in Enfield.[2] He joined Enfield Colts at the age of 6, moving to Enfield F.C. at the age of 10.[2]

Career

Pike received much publicity when he went on trial with Dutch club Ajax in 1995;[2][5][6] though the club wanted to sign him, he returned to England to sign for Leyton Orient instead.[2] A proposed move to Chelsea fell through, and he later went on trial with both Queens Park Rangers and Crystal Palace before signing with Stevenage Borough.[2] He had a trial at Grimsby Town,[5] before quitting football at the age of 18.[2]

There were reports in the media that he had a non-league career at clubs such as Barnet and Waltham Forest under an assumed name,[6] or that he was playing in Dundee, but Pike has denied those reports.[5]

Later career

In 2016 Pike was working as a taxi driver in London.[5] In February 2020 he opened a football academy.[7] He is married with two children.[2] He continues to be cited by the football media as the archetype of a heavily promoted child prodigy who ultimately did not achieve success in the sport.[8]

References

  1. "First Person Plural". radiolistings.co.uk. 14 January 1996. Retrieved 5 February 2009. Twelve year old Sonny Pike is a footballing genius
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Back to the future: Sonny Pike returns to Ajax". www.goal.com.
  3. "Too much too young?". BBC News. 23 June 1999. Retrieved 11 September 2009.
  4. "Lost soccer talents: teen players who sparkled too early". 90soccer.com. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Ames, Nick (25 February 2016). "Sonny Pike on life as a football prodigy: 'At 17 my head was finished. I was suicidal'" via www.theguardian.com.
  6. 1 2 "Sonny Pike". When Saturday Comes. Archived from the original on 22 May 2012.
  7. Ames, Nick (31 March 2020). "How Sonny Pike, the wonderkid who fell to earth, is guiding young players" via www.theguardian.com.
  8. Dickson, Andrew (28 November 2016). "Celtic's Karamoko Dembele will hopefully have more good fortune than me, says Sonny Pike". Sky Sports. Retrieved 21 May 2020.


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