Sky Sports Premier League Podcast
One on One | Sessegnon talks about dealing with hype, his move to Tottenham and 'coming home' to Fulham!
17 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What does Ryan Sessegnon reflect on regarding his early career at Fulham?
We could be here for hours talking about it. It was a real up-and-down journey. At that time, I knew I was young, but I didn't feel like it was crazy what I was doing until I see videos of it now and I look back and I think, yeah, what I was doing at 16 was actually crazy.
To describe my time there, it was a roller-coaster, you know, and Tottenham fans probably saw glimpses of what I could do and never really saw me on the pitch anyway, which was frustrating for me. It was a homecoming. Obviously, I really missed the club when I was away.
I always said that I would hope there would be a possibility for me to come back at any point and for it to be a reality was crazy for me.
Welcome to one-on-one from Sky Sports, the podcast where we chat to some of the brightest stars in the Premier League. I'm Joe Tomlinson. There's no jewels today. And I've been lucky enough to travel to Fulham's Motspur Park training ground to chat to the one and only Ryan Sessegnon. And boy, do we use the word journey to describe some footballing careers.
And even though he's not really traveled that far, Ryan Sessegnon's career today has certainly been that, a journey. It's full of ups and downs. And as he says himself, it's really been a roller coaster. Some people might well not remember, but Ryan is the definition of a proper wonderkid.
He came through the ranks of the Fulham Academy to the first team at 16 years old and he set all of the records along the way. After winning multiple accolades, he helped Fulham back to the Premier League in 2018 before a really high profile move to Tottenham Hotspur. To use the rollercoaster analogy again, he was definitely on the up.
But that's where things started to go, I suppose you could say, a little downhill for Sessegnon.
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Chapter 2: How did Ryan Sessegnon adapt to the challenges at Tottenham?
A series of injuries as well as changes to the management, his playing time was really quite limited. So after going out on loan, he eventually found his way back to Fulham for what he would describe as his homecoming. So as you'll hear, Ryan talks about how his career has really come full circle. He discusses his quite incredible sporting family.
His brothers all play, so does his nephew, and how he's learnt to live with the hype. This is my one-on-one with Ryan Sessegnon.
That's Ryan Sessegnon. And Sessegnon! In the wind and the rain, Fulham take the lead. A game of not many chances, Ryan Sessegnon takes his chance.
Ryan, thank you so much for joining me. We're here today to look back on your career a little bit. To hype you up, I think is the fair way of putting it because at Fulham you're becoming a bit of a club legend at this stage and you've been here for so long now. I wanted you to take yourself back to when you first arrived. Do you remember that day? Do you remember being scouted by Fulham?
Vaguely, yes. I remember doing like a trial. There was like a Goals not too far from here, me and my brother. I remember my mum taking us down there, doing like a six weeks trial.
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Chapter 3: What does Ryan Sessegnon describe as his homecoming to Fulham?
And then, yeah, I remember getting the news that we'd been accepted into the academy. And then, yeah, just coming here to Monza Park and then starting up in the under-9s.
Because, obviously, you were here with your brother. You've got a serious, talented family, man. Like, I was looking at the amount of players in your family that are footballers. How many is it? Rat them off.
So, me, Stephen, my brother Chris played semi-pro as well.
Okay.
I've got a nephew that's in the academy at Fulham here as well. Under 15s, I believe he is. Yeah, 15s. I have a cousin that was at Chelsea as well. And, yeah, my other nephews have dibbled and dabbled in football as well, but not to a certain level.
Were your parents, like, sporty? Is that where this comes from?
No, no, no.
It's like, what's going on?
What's in the water? I don't know.
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Chapter 4: How has Ryan Sessegnon's family influenced his football journey?
It's weird, isn't it? I don't know. No, none of them were sporty. Just something in the genes, I guess, yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, your nephew, you said, now is 15 in the academy. We've literally got, like, assessing your lineage developing here at Fulham. You must feel so close to this club.
Yeah, I do, of course. It's my home. Like you said, been here for a very long time. Obviously, went away and then come back. So, yeah, it's always been home.
When you were trialling first time round, were you playing up front, I remember?
Yeah, in the younger age groups. I played all over, to be honest, but I always had an instinct for goals. In the younger age group, then I would say probably around under 14s, 15s, I started getting pushed back a little bit, playing left-back, and then I had a good engine and could always arrive in the box and stuff like that. So that's why I ended up playing, yeah.
How did you find that move going from probably scoring loads of goals amongst the youth teams to moving towards the back end of the pitch? Was that fine for you or do you remember being like, this is jarring?
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Chapter 5: What was it like for Ryan Sessegnon to make his professional debut?
No, I remember it being quite fine because I think in my age group I was never the most technically gifted or skillful or anything like that. But I always made good decisions. So I feel like... From defence to attack, I could really turn it over quite quickly.
And then they saw that from a young age and then I managed to just develop my craft a little bit defensively attacking and then found the balance from there.
So obviously you worked your way up through the age groups. Do you remember getting your first pro contract? Do you remember sitting in the room and them saying, OK, yeah, we are going to give you terms?
Yeah, so I actually got told quite early that we were going to get given, me and my brother were going to get given pro contracts. It was around, I think I was like 14. Wow, that's young, man. Yeah, it was really young. So I got told I was going to get like a scholar and then I think it was like a two-year pro or something like that.
But then things progressed quickly and obviously at 16 I was in the first team already. Yeah. I was playing without a professional contract and then on my 17th birthday, that's when I signed and then yeah, it went from there.
That is seriously something for people at home that don't realise. 14 is like crazy young to be talked about in terms of pro terms. What was it like stepping up then into that first team situation? You said you were training there at 16.
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Chapter 6: How did Ryan Sessegnon handle the pressure of breaking records at a young age?
Was that a scary place, that daunting for you?
A little bit, because the first time I trained, I was 15, still in school, and they told me to come over on like a Friday session. And I remember the 18s coach at the time, Steve Wigley, telling me that I was going to train, and I was obviously happy but really nervous at the same time. Yeah. And then, yeah, I did the session. I was okay. It wasn't too much.
I think it was one of those ones where small side of the game, corners, and then it's done, you know? Yeah. so I did that and then I remember the following season I think he must have obviously liked what he saw a little bit Slavica Yechanovic and then I was with the first team for pre-season and the following season so yeah it just started from there
Who was in amongst that team that people at home might remember and you were looking at and thinking, wow, I'm training alongside here. Serious players.
Scott Parker was there. Yeah. Scott Parker.
He must have been a leader in the dressing room at that time. Because obviously now he's a manager in the Premier League. He must have been serious leadership material back then.
Yeah, he was the captain. There was Ross McCormack was in there.
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Chapter 7: What lessons did Ryan Sessegnon learn during his loan experience in Germany?
Hollywood Row.
Were you intimidated by these players in training? You said you were the engine. You liked to get involved. Were you just straight in?
I wasn't intimidated. I was just happy to be a part of it, you know, and I just wanted to do well. And obviously I looked up to some of these players as well.
Yeah, absolutely. And then obviously you go on to make your debut quite young as well. That experience, did you have your family there in the stadium watching you?
No, my family wasn't actually. What? It was because it was away at Leyton Orient in a cup. But what made it better was other academy products made their debuts as well, as well as me. So... There was Teo Eden, Luca De La Torre and Dennis Adenaran made their debuts together. Yeah, and then Scott Parker actually started that game as well, so he kind of like... Pushed us through the game. Really?
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Chapter 8: How has Marco Silva impacted Ryan Sessegnon's return to Fulham?
Got you on a grip in the neck?
Yeah, kind of thing.
Yeah, I can certainly imagine. Obviously, you kind of flourished from there. Because I was looking at some of the records you were breaking in the Championship in around that time. Absolutely ridiculous. The first player born in the 2000s to score a goal for the first team in the EFL. The youngest ever Championship scorer at the time. What was it like when these records start falling and you...
feeling that pressure yeah do you know what it wasn't even pressure it was just enjoyment and i feel like at that time it was crazy what i was doing but i didn't realize it until i got a little bit older after at that time i knew i was young but i didn't feel like it was crazy what i was doing until i see videos of it now and i look back and i think yeah what i was doing at 16 was actually crazy
Yeah, it is, because I was doing this podcast a couple of weeks ago with Josh King, and, you know, he was saying, like, I'm looking up, like, Ryan, he's almost in that sort of same area now, isn't it? Do you see that sort of, like, yourself in him?
I do, and I try to guide him and look after him as much as I can as well, because what he's going through now, I've been through it as well. So I do see a little bit of my journey in him, and I'll always be there to try and help him.
Yeah, a bit like him, obviously, he went with England this summer. You obviously had massive success, didn't you, 2017, under 19 Euros. Let's take you back to that tournament a little bit, because I was looking at some of the names in the England squad. That was a team. Some of the names in that team, I think Rhys James was in there, wasn't he? Mason Mount was in there.
What was it like to be amongst that group?
Yeah, it was crazy. Obviously, I'd been playing with these guys from a young age and the younger age groups as well. So, yeah, in that time, we had a good team. Like you said, Mace and Rhys, Marcus Edwards.
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