Sonny Pike
Pike in 2022
Personal information
Date of birth 1983 (age 40–41)[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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