Bukayo Saka
Active- Denomination or tradition
- Pentecostal
- Current or last club
- Arsenal
- Country (nationality)
- England
- League or competition
- Premier League
- Position
- Right winger
- How is the religion known?
- Stated publicly by the player
- Last checked
- 9 October 2026
Saka is openly Christian, and he has spoken many times about how important his faith is in his life and football career. In interviews, Saka has explained that trusting God helps him stay calm, confident, and fearless during difficult moments on and off the pitch.
We list a player’s religion only where they have spoken about it publicly or it has been reliably reported, and we link our sources. If something is wrong, or a player’s views have changed, please tell us and we will review it.
Table of Contents
What religion is Bukayo Saka?
Bukayo Saka is a professional football player who is a devout Pentecostal Christian. Raised in a deeply religious family, he attributes his spiritual foundation to his childhood, where his parents taught him the importance of prayer and regular church attendance. Saka attributes his mindset to a personal relationship with God, emphasizing that his faith removes the fear of failure and the anxiety of match outcomes.
He defines faith as believing regardless of what is visible to the eye, heavily relying on the Biblical principle of “walking by faith, not by sight.” He publicly describes his identity with the phrase “God’s child,” which serves as the permanent headline of his official Instagram biography.
Saka reads his Bible every single night before going to bed to ensure he maintains the presence of God. He uses a physical Bible that was gifted to him by his father, actively memorizing specific passages to apply to his daily life. Alongside his personal devotion, Saka participates in a regular player-led fellowship group within the Arsenal Football Club squad. This group gathers at team hotels to study scripture, discuss the application of the Bible, and pray for one another.
Saka explicitly integrates his Christian beliefs into his professional performance. He wears a left wristband featuring a handwritten cross symbol to represent Jesus Christ during matches. Whenever he scores a goal or provides an assist, he deliberately points both hands toward the sky. He clarifies that this gesture is a direct public acknowledgment to thank God for answering his pre-match prayers and to return all personal glory to Him.
Bukayo Saka plays for both the Premier League club Arsenal and the England men’s national team and is considered by many one of the best players in the world. Born in London to Nigerian parents, he came through Arsenal’s Hale End academy and has spent his entire senior career at the club, becoming one of its most important players and its highest earner. He has represented England at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro 2020, UEFA Euro 2024, and the 2026 FIFA World Cup, reaching the final of the Euros on both occasions he has played in the tournament.
Additionally, Saka was also twice named England Men’s Player of the Year, first winning the honor for the 2021–22 season ahead of Declan Rice and Harry Kane and becoming the first Arsenal player to win it.
Contracts, Salary & Career Earnings
Saka made his senior Arsenal debut in November 2018 and has never played professionally for another club. He signed his first significant contract extension with Arsenal in 2020, followed by a further four-year extension in May 2023 reported to be worth an estimated £200,000 per week with a total value of around $40.56 million.
In February 2026, Saka signed a new long-term contract with Arsenal running until June 2030, with wages reported in excess of £300,000 per week, making him the club’s highest-paid player. The deal ended lengthy negotiations between his camp and the club and came shortly before Arsenal won the Premier League title, Saka’s first league title of his career, in May 2026.
Early life
Saka was born on 5 September 2001 in Ealing, Greater London, to Yoruba Nigerian parents, Adenike and Yomi Saka, who had emigrated to London from Nigeria as economic migrants in the 1990s. He is the younger of two children, with an older brother, Abayomi, who also played football in his youth for Watford before pursuing higher education. His first name, Bukayo, comes from the Yoruba language and means “added joy.”
Saka was educated at Edward Betham Church of England Primary School and Greenford High School. Before joining Arsenal, he played youth football for local club Greenford Celtic and had a brief spell in Watford’s youth setup. He joined Arsenal’s Hale End academy at age seven and progressed through the club’s youth ranks, signing his first professional contract at 17 and moving up to the Under-23 side.
Arsenal
Saka made his first-team debut for Arsenal on 29 November 2018 in a UEFA Europa League match against Vorskla Poltava and made his Premier League debut on 1 January 2019 against Fulham, becoming the first player born in 2001 to appear in the competition. He scored his first senior goal in September 2019 against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League, also providing two assists in that match, and went on to enjoy a breakthrough campaign that season that established him as a first-team regular.
Saka has been named Arsenal’s Player of the Season on multiple occasions, including for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons. He won the FA Cup with Arsenal in 2020 and has added multiple FA Community Shields to his honors since. In October 2025, he scored against Wales in World Cup qualifying to become Arsenal’s all-time leading goalscorer for the national team component of his career milestones and, by that point, had recorded 55 Premier League goals and 45 assists in more than 200 appearances for the club.
In the 2025-26 season, he helped Arsenal win the Premier League title. In addition, he also helped anchor the side during their run to the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League final in Budapest, where they finished as runners-up to Paris Saint-Germain after a tight penalty shootout.
International career
Saka represented England from the under-16 level to the under-21 levels before receiving his first senior call-up in October 2020. He was part of England’s squad at UEFA Euro 2020, and on the night of the final against Italy at Wembley on 11 July 2021, he stepped up to take England’s fifth penalty in the shootout, only for Italy’s goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma to save it, with England going on to lose the shootout. Saka, then 19, was one of three England players subjected to racist abuse online in the aftermath.
He went on to represent England at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, scoring a brace in the team’s opening match against Iran, and was named England’s Player of the Year following the tournament. He was part of England’s squad that reached the final of UEFA Euro 2024, again losing to Spain, and was subsequently named to the England squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, helping the team reach its best World Cup finish since 1966.
Personal life
Saka is in a long-term relationship with Tolami Benson, who is also of Nigerian heritage. In late 2025, it was reported that Saka had proposed to Benson.
Sources
- Interview (opens in a new tab) KD Motivations
Sources are linked so you can check each claim yourself. Beliefs and public statements can change, so please check the source for the latest.
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