One of the more humiliating things I’ve done as a football journalist was to score a big fat zero at darts.
It takes some doing. But at the last World Cup, I failed to register a score. The first one went in the board, fell out and then I went to pieces and missed the board with my next two. John Stones only had to hit the board which he duly did.
Thankfully, it went slightly better against Bukayo Saka on Monday afternoon (watch the video of the action at the top of this page). I still lost, obviously. But I got 33. He asked: “what do I do?” Then, seemingly having never played darts before, threw a treble 19 and it was all over.
The journalists are well behind the players now in the darts challenge at the England media centre which has been brilliantly put together by unsung heroes of the Football Association’s media team and it helps bring about a bit of camaraderie.
Saka is not only a brilliant player, but a lovely person and speaks so openly and honestly. He’s just the boy-next-door type. No wonder Gareth Southgate famously said he was the sort of boy you’d be happy with if your daughter brought him home.
Then Saka, after the darts, faced the media, took questions from the TV cameras and the written press as the day’s media activity the day after England’s win over France.
Saka had another blinder, scored and showed why he has been so good for Arsenal and the driving force behind their climb to the top of the Premier League.
What always impresses me about Saka is that, for such a young player, he is so clever when it comes to decision making. He’s so intelligent on the pitch and hardly ever makes a wrong choice.
Which England World Cup star would you most like to play at darts? Comment here
Then what he said in his presser amazed me. He’s never met Arsene Wenger. And would love to meet Wenger.
Wenger would take such an interest in the academy and even used to make personal visits to meet the families of young players to try and convince them to sign.
Saka was on the books when Wenger left Arsenal in 2018. Saka joined Arsenal as a seven-year-old and you really thought their paths might have crossed, especially considering that Wenger does remember Harry Kane as a youngster at Arsenal before he joined Tottenham.
Wenger is at the World Cup in his role for FIFA. If England progress through to the semi finals and Saka is still in Qatar then this feels that this meeting has to be made to happen.
