Here we go, oh! Bukayo Saka and fashion’s front row! The 21-year-old England star has yet to be seated next to Anna Wintour IRL but, as he arrives at the ES photo shoot in Stoke Newington with all the va-va voom swagger of his idol Thierry Henry, it’s obvious why the glit - terati are looking his way. He appraises a slick, all-green Dior ensemble as ‘10/10’, runs his eye over wardrobe’s AW looks — ‘Give me a few years and I’ll be suited and booted. Nothing but swag,’ he says — and is very, very nice to every - one on set. He’s all smiles, a delight, every inch the nation’s sweetheart. It’s the eyes, says Arsenal legend Ian Wright to me, by email. ‘He always looks you in the eye and has such a presence. There is a natural kindness to him off the pitch, but a steely determination on it.’ How could you be anything other than charmed?
Saka is the Premier League’s most beloved star, a generational giant in an Arsenal team with such heft and cut-through that Sir Keir Starmer namechecked Mikel Arteta’s men in his keynote speech at Labour’s conference in Liverpool (weirder still, they cheered). A country’s hopes, prayers and dreams are, somewhat ridiculously, pinned on him firing us to 2022 Qatar World Cup success this winter. England fans have just voted him their player of the year. Everyone loves him. I, however, have just dropped him from my fantasy football team. ‘Not good enough,’ he says, joking (I think), when I apologise. ‘This interview is over.’
