Dominic Solanke’s Lessons from Drogba, Salah, and Costa: Champions League, World Cup Dreams

The symmetry was impossible to escape as Dominic Solanke stood once more in anticipation on more less the same patch of Wembley turf.

Back in an England shirt, poised to win his second cap for his country, ready to come on as a second-half sub against Greece just as he had done when making his debut against Brazil.

Seven years older, wiser for the twists and turns and everything that happened in between. Bigger, stronger. A better striker, he agreed, more complete, and determined to be part of England’s future which he did not know at the time would be about to unfold under Thomas Tuchel.

‘I’ve been through a lot,’ admits Solanke. ‘I’ve learned a lot. ‘I’ve grown a lot, on and off the pitch. My game has improved a lot since that first cap. I’ve matured a lot, filled out. I’m a lot stronger than back then.

‘Obviously, back then I was quite young, and it was a friendly game. This one, I was a bit older now and in competition so two different games. Probably more excitement than nerves this time. You just want to get on and play because representing your country, it’s a dream.

‘When you’re young looking up at the top players, they’re all doing it for their countries. And there’s so many players that to be one of the selected few is a huge achievement.

‘Every time you get the chance it’s something to cherish so I’m thankful to have the opportunity again. I feel like I’ve worked hard to get back there so it was a joy to be back.’

This was Solanke’s second coming as an England international. His first featured a mammoth haul of 72 caps at various youth levels, the pinnacle of which was England’s victory in the Under-20s World Cup in South Korea, where he scored four and won the Golden Ball, the prize for the best player.

Previous winners included Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona. ‘Nice to brag about,’ he smiles when reminded how Rodrigo Bentancur, now a Tottenham teammate, played in the same tournament for Uruguay. ‘I’ll never forget, that’s one of my greatest achievements to this day. Hopefully, there’s more to come.

‘It’s a long season and I need to keep playing for Tottenham, doing well for the club, and hopefully there will be more opportunities to play for England in the future.’

Solanke kept his England shirt from last week’s Nations League game against Greece, his second appearance for the senior team to go with all those from the youth ranks, and intends to frame it and hang it alongside the shirt already on his wall from his debut against Brazil in 2017.

Among his first tasks on his return to Tottenham’s training centre was to help out at a five-a-side tournament run by the club’s community coaches for aspiring young players aged 16-18 from around North London.

He mingles, chats and picks up a microphone to field their quick-fire questions. Idol? Didier Drogba. Toughest opponent? Virgil van Dijk. Most gifted teammate? Eden Hazard.

Biggest setback? ‘Relegation with Bournemouth.’ Advice? ‘Keep going and believe in yourself.’ Ambition? ‘To try to be at the next World Cup.’

At their age, Solanke had already been tipped for stardom by Jose Mourinho who named him as one of three Chelsea teenagers he expected to make the top. The others were Lewis Baker and Izzy Brown.

‘My conscience tells me that if Baker, Brown and Solanke are not national team players in a few years, I should blame myself,’ said Mourinho with trademark conviction just three months before handing Solanke his senior Chelsea debut as a sub in a Champions League group game against Maribor.

It is a decade this week since that first glimpse of the young Solanke. Baker, meanwhile, is at Blackburn in the Championship on loan from Stoke. Brown retired after a succession of injury problems in April last year.

‘When a manager like that says those things it’s great to hear,’ says Solanke. ‘A bit of added pressure but he obviously said it for a reason. I have good memories from there.’

It would prove to be Solanke’s sole appearance for Chelsea. He spent the next season on loan at Vitesse Arnhem in the Dutch Eredivisie and Mourinho had been sacked by the time he returned.

Antonio Conte was in charge and Solanke ran down his contract, resisting offers having decided to leave for better pathway to the first team, joined Liverpool in the summer of 2017, then Bournemouth 18 months later, having failed to make an impression at Anfield.

‘In life, there’s always things that can happen that are out of your control,’ says Solanke. ‘I’m a great believer that everyone’s journey is different, and you’ll get to where you want to be if you keep working hard. That’s kind of my mindset.’

A philosophy that has helped him ride the personal setbacks and keep learning from some of the iconic forwards around him about exactly what might be required to reach the top.

‘Growing up at Chelsea, Drogba was the main guy, always scoring and the main man leading the team,’ he recalls. ‘For me as a striker that was a great person to look up to and he helped me a lot.

‘He was very honest when I trained with them, doing a finishing drill he would point stuff out and express what was on his mind. He wouldn’t just not say anything. I’m thankful for that.’

Then there was Diego Costa. ‘One of the funniest people I’ve met in football. A crazy personality, always messing about, pulling pranks. Players like that are important in dressing rooms just to lift the mood sometimes.

‘And what he did at Chelsea over the years meant he was another to look up to, another great player and I learned from him.’

At Liverpool, there was the famous front three of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mo Salah, who signed in the same summer as Solanke and scored 44 goals in his debut season as Liverpool reached the Champions League final, losing to Real Madrid in Kyiv.

‘They were a joy to watch and be around,’ says Solanke. ‘The clubs I’ve been at, there’s been some great players who’ve hit crazy form and hit their prime.’

This season, eyes are on Solanke expecting him to do the same. He reset during five and a half years under five different managers at Bournemouth, finding his rhythm and confidence during two years in the Championship and roaring back to the Premier League with the look of a player out to prove doubters wrong.

Since the start of 2021-22 he has scored 61 goals in 133 appearances, including his first three for Tottenham, who paid Bournemouth what could become a club record fee of £65million, backing his talent to blossom in the void left by Harry Kane.

That comes with pressure, although Solanke shrugs. ‘Pressure is just part of football. No matter what club you’re at, you need to be playing well. At a bigger club there’s always added pressure and expectation, but everybody wants to play for the biggest clubs so that pressure is a privilege.’

The first challenge for Ange Postecoglou’s team is a respond to the collapse at Brighton, from two up at half-time to a third defeat in the Premier League this season, which leaves Spurs off the pace in ninth as they resume with a derby against West Ham on Saturday.

Can Solanke seize this chance? Up front in a team designed to attack freely and create chances, can he leave his mark at an elite level now he is bigger, better, more complete? Can he score the goals to help Spurs forget about Kane, end the wait for trophies, return to the Champions League?

‘Being at a club like Tottenham that’s what we all want to be a part of,’ he says. ‘We’re in the Europa League this year and hopefully we can do well and go on to win that, but the Champions League is where everyone wants to be.’Perhaps it would close a circle for Solanke, having made his Chelsea debut in the Champions League and watched Liverpool come so close to winning it in 2018, to lead Spurs back into Europe’s elite.

‘Hopefully we can reach that next season. It would be great to be a part of, and even better to win that. Hopefully over the next years we can get back in that competition and do well.

‘I love the way we play. And it’s one of the reasons I decided to come here. It suits my game well, winning the ball high up the pitch, it’s going to benefit me and bring the best out of me.’

Dominic Solanke was speaking at Tottenham Hotspur’s training centre during a five-a-side tournament for aspiring young footballers organised through the club’s education and football development centres. Find out more here