Ayoze Perez...the star who is part of two winning teams
BROTHERS ARE ‘LIVING DREAM TOGETHER’ IN BLACK AND WHITE STRIPES
THERE will be two Perez brothers playing in black-and-whitestriped shirts on Saturday week, both at St James’ Park. But while one will run-out in front of 52,000 fans at one of England’s most-famous football stadia in the heart of Newcastle, the other will be entertaining a few-hundred fans in Northumberland as he chases his own professionalfootball dream. While Ayoze will be lining up for Championship pacesetters Newcastle United against Wigan Athletic on Tyneside, his elder sibling Samuel - or ‘Sammy’ - will be playing for Northern League Division Two side Alnwick Town against Billingham Town up in Northumberland. But, despite their very different footballing paths to date, they are very much a double act. It appears Newcastle fans would not have Ayoze without Sammy. In fact, so profound has Sammy’s impact on Ayoze’s career been that the Magpies forward refers to his brother as “the key”. “He has been the most important thing in my success here,” Ayoze stresses, gesturing towards Sammy as he talks - their closeness immediately obvious. “The key to everything.” While Ayoze’s rapid rise since arriving on Tyneside in June 2014 is well known, his elder brother’s own, far-from glamorous journey around the North East’s non-league grounds is less-well documented.
But Sammy has been with Ayoze from the very start. Two brothers who left sunny Santa Cruz in northern Tenerife almost three years ago to realise their dream in Newcastle.
And they both emphasise repeatedly that it is a collective “dream” they are pursuing; Ayoze may be playing professionally, but they are both cherishing the experience together.
“It’s more special for me to be here doing this with him because it is what we always wanted,” Ayoze beams.
“For us to have this feeling, this connection and to enjoy English football together having watched it on TV when we were younger - it’s a dream come true for us.”
For Sammy, there is not even a hint of envy as he speaks of the pride he felt watching Ayoze run on to the pitch at St James’ Park - Newcastle’s world-famous stadium, not Alnwick’s lesser-known ground of the same name - to make his Premier League debut in August 2014.
“We watched the Premier League together when we were young, and now to see him playing here is amazing,” Sammy stresses.
“I just thought: ‘Wow, unbelievable!’
“I’m so happy for him. He knows that, for me, it’s the same if he’s living our dream as if it was me doing it.”
Real Madrid and Barcelona were both sniffing around Ayoze during the summer of 2014 after he netted 16 goals in 34 Segunda Division appearances for Tenerife, despite having yet to sign professionally.
But it was Newcastle who really showed a desire to sign Ayoze. And the brothers knew Tyneside was the destination best-travelled for them both.
“It was a dream that could come true,” Ayoze reminisces with a smile.
“Newcastle, the Premier League it was, it is, our dream.
“I didn’t need to think too much about it - I came straight away.”
While Ayoze has scored 22 goals in 110 appearances for Newcastle during his time in the North East, Sammy - also a forward - has represented Blyth Spartans, Team Northumbria, Berwick Rangers and now Alnwick.
In the close-to three years since Ayoze Perez celebrates with Paul Dummett, Dwight Gayle, Vurnon Anita and Jack Colback and after winning a mini football tournament during the Newcastle United training Session yesterday. Left, Perez and his brother Samuel they moved here, the pair have been almost inseparable.
Not only do they share a flat together in Gosforth, but they spend most of their spare time in one another’s company.
The duo describe their shopping trips, their explorations around the Northumberland countryside, and their visits to the North East’s beaches - “colder than Tenerife’s, but we love them” - as well as their PS4-fuelled sibling rivalry when the Tyneside chill forces them to stay indoors.
Sammy’s presence helped make Tyneside a home away from home for Ayoze instantaneously.
After all, when they were growing up, the pair “played football together every day” - though only once did they feature together in the same team competitively.
During a victory for Santa Cruz against Tenerife’s youth side, the pair played up front together.
They describe the unique “connection” they enjoyed.
Ayoze explains he’d “love” to enjoy the “special feeling” of playing with Sammy again “one day”.
Sammy stresses that is now his “dream” is to replicate that - though he knows they are on “different paths”, even if they are “enjoying them together.”
Ayoze adds: “When I came I was