Sol Sidibe is in his third pre-season with the Stoke City first team amid speculation about his future
15:42, 02 Jul 2025Updated 15:45, 02 Jul 2025
Sol Sidibe is all smiles as Stoke City return for pre-season training.
Sol Sidibe is all smiles as Stoke City return for pre-season training.(Image: Phil Greig 2025)
Sol Sidibe is taking inspiration from his summer training mate Myles Lewis-Skelly as he targets regular first team action this season.
Sidibe is 18 now and in his third pre-season with the Stoke City first team squad – all on the back of a 10-day camp away in Southern Europe set up by the agency who look after him and players like Arsenal left-back Lewis-Skelly, who had a breakthrough Premier League season in 2024/25 to the point where he made his senior England debut in March.
Sidibe made his club debut as a 16-year-old but his progress hasn’t been helped by Stoke turning through four managers in the last two seasons while he was diagnosed with a lower back stress fracture almost immediately after Mark Robins took up position in January, ruling him out for the rest of the campaign.
He has been linked with a move away in the last few weeks – the window is open until September 1 – and it is clear he is desperate to kickstart his career. He is not expected to go out on loan.
“I’m 18 now so you see it’s possible for young players to play at that level and succeed,” he said about his time training with Lewis-Skelly.
“A year ago, me and Myles were playing together for England under-18s. Now Myles is playing in the senior team for England. (Since then) I’ve captained England for under-18s.
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“After playing with him, seeing him play and even when we’re training he looks at me and sees that I can get to a higher level. There’s even certain things when I can help him. We feed off each other and help each other.
“My goals for next season are to make more first team appearances than I did last season, to be an established first team player. Last season I was in the first team dressing room and I was with the first team but I still think there’s a lot more room for me to grow as a first team player and have a successful season.”
Sidibe was joined by Stoke youth right-back Sydney Agina for this pre, pre-season – run by fitness coaches Ruben Tabares and coach Kader Hassan – and, if he is still working all the way back up to 100 per cent after his back problem, he is in a different position than when he first went away in 2023.
He said in a video for social media: “The first camp was in Verona and the first day when we arrived, we trained and it was hot and I think that session was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done. After that session I was thinking, ‘Oh, this is going to be a long week.’
“I was weaker, smaller, skinnier – all three of those. I was 16 because I’d just finished my GCSEs and that first day was a shock to the system. To be fair, after that I picked up, I started adapting and it just got better and better.
“Everything that happened on that camp set me up perfectly to go into that pre-season. On the back of that I ended up making my debut and playing in the first team a bit. That camp was huge to why that happened.
“Every year we’ve done these camps it’s set us up perfectly to go into pre-season in a peak position of fitness and mindset.”
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