AT just 21 years old Serine Sanneh has already played for some of England’s biggest clubs.
And he once represented the Three Lions at youth level – alongside the likes of Jude Bellingham, Cole Palmer and Jamal Musiala no less.
In an exclusive chat with SunSport, Sanneh reveals it was a player recently released by a Premier League team who actually impressed him most during his time with the Three Lions.
He also lifts the lid on what happened when Bellingham went through one-on-one against him.
But Sanneh’s personal progress was rocked by a horrific knee injury that stopped him from completing a dream move to France, leaving the young goalkeeper without a club.
Now, two years on, he is back enjoying his football with non-league side Rusthall FC and ready to prove the doubters wrong.
“My ambitions are obviously to get back to where I belong and where I deserve,” Sanneh tells SunSport.
“Obviously I’m working hard everyday. I’m at a club where I’m enjoying my football and the managers. I love them to bits because they’re letting me play how I play.
“Everyday I’m basically training hard and luckily now I’m performing how I was before. I even think I’ve improved in terms of my goalkeeping.
“I can’t really know where I see myself in the next few years but I know it’s something good because I know behind the scenes I’m working very hard to get back to where I need to be.”
Sanneh spent the earliest years of his career at West Ham‘s academy, playing for the U8s and U9s.
He enjoyed ten years with the East London side before joining Crystal Palace for a season.
But disaster struck just as he was preparing for a life-changing move to France.
“It was a meniscus tear. But because I wasn’t at a club at the time I didn’t really know what it was, so when I had pains in my knee I knew I couldn’t play football,” he explains.
“So I was just rehabbing it and then after four months I tried to come back, tried to pass a ball and the pain, it felt like someone shot me in my knee.
“I went to see the doctors, had an MRI scan and they said it was a meniscus tear. I had to have surgery and they removed 80 per cent of meniscus in my right knee, so I was out for another four months after the surgery.”
After recovering in 2022 Sanneh went on to play for non-league sides Kingstonian and Leatherhead.
He is now with Southern Counties East League Premier Division club Rustall, based near Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent.
The goalkeeper is still loving his football, even though his career took an unexpected path.
As a teenager he represented England from U15s to U17s and starred alongside the likes of Euro 2024 stars Bellingham and Musiala.
Recalling the day he stepped into the England set-up, he says: “It was tough! I remember the first day I went to the England camp and, obviously I’d just spent my whole life at West Ham so that was a comfortable environment.
“Then all of a sudden you’re at the England camp and you’re playing the best of the best and it was just crazy. The ability that everybody had there – less mistakes, obviously the standard was a bit higher, it was crazy.”
Both Bellingham and Musiala were considered among the best, but Sanneh also heaped praise on Amadou Diallo – who recently left Newcastle and is now a free agent.
“Jude, he did stand out because he was a skilful player. But I remember he was training up with Musiala and there was one guy called Amadou Diallo, I think it was those three that were training up a year.
“Yeah, at the time Jude, he was very good. Musiala as well. Obviously I hadn’t really played against Jude that much, it was my first time actually meeting him because he was playing for Birmingham.
“But Jamal Musiala, I played against him while he was at Chelsea so I knew that he was very good.
“It’s funny, I think a player at the time, we were U15s, had never gone one-v-one and dinked me. The first ever time it was Jude Bellingham!
“I was shocked! I was like, ‘yeah, this is crazy!’ When you’re playing against them it’s different because their shooting is a lot better and as a keeper, you have to make an outstanding save against them.
“Yeah, they just can finish. I think the best finisher out of the three was probably Diallo, but they could all finish.”
Sanneh always knew that Bellingham in particular was special.
The midfield maestro has been a key player for England at Euro 2024 this summer having already impressed during his debut season at Real Madrid.
Not many could have predicted that he would go on to be as integral so quickly, just five years after breaking through at Birmingham as a 16-year-old.
But Sanneh claims he oozed confidence even when playing up a year for the Three Lions.
“I feel like when you have a lot of talent, when you believe, and I’m not saying Jude was ahead of himself but he was confident in a way that’s good.
“He knows ‘okay, I’m good at football, it’s time to show these guys why I’m here.’ Because he was training up an age group. He was coming in and doing so well, so he was very, very good.
“Sometimes it’s good to show that confidence because that’s how you’re going to play well. If you show that throughout your career, like he has done, building up his way from Birmingham City, kept going and into the first team.
“He played well and just kept getting more confident, got his move to Dortmund and now looks good to show that. Otherwise I don’t think he’d be in the position he is now.”
Bellingham is set to start for England when the Three Lions face Switzerland in the Euro 2024 quarter-finals after being a handed a suspended one game ban and £25,000 fine by Uefa for his “crotch grabbing” celebration against Slovakia.
The midfielder single-handedly saved Gareth Southgate‘s side from a shock last-16 exit last week.
He scored a stunning bicycle kick with less than 30 seconds to play in added time against Slovakia to level the game at 1-1 before Harry Kane went on to net the winner.
