FORMER Tottenham prodigy Souleymane Coulibaly is loving life at non-league side Pickering Town – after rejecting the chance to head to Italy.
The striker, 31, is in the ninth tier and has already notched 20 goals this season – meaning he is the joint-top scorer in the Northern Counties East League Premier Division.
Coulibaly was in Tottenham’s reserves alongside current England captain Harry Kane and also trained with the likes of Gareth Bale and Luka Modric during his time in North London.
But the ex-Ivory Coast youth international failed to make a senior appearance for Spurs and has revealed that he snubbed the chance to complete moves to Italy and Iran to shine for Pickering.
He told The Athletic: “I’m trying to finish my career peacefully. I got a lot of offers from Italy and Iran, but I don’t want to go.
“I’ve been abroad for seven years. I bought a house in Hull, and I want to stay close to my children. I don’t need to prove to anybody who I am.
“My focus is to help the team get promoted, but the lower leagues in England are hard.
“A lot of clubs asked me to play for them, but I promised Pickering Town I would stay until the end of the season. I’m enjoying my football again.”
Coulibaly joined Tottenham from Italian side Siena after catching the eye with nine goals in four outings at the Under-17 World Cup in 2011.
That allowed him to win the Golden Boot – and Spurs beat future boss Jose Mourinho to his signature.
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Coulibaly added: “I told my agent I just wanted to play football. He took me to Real Madrid because Jose Mourinho wanted me and they showed me their stadium.
“I returned to Italy and Tottenham visited me. They showed me their [development] plan and the new training ground, which wasn’t finished yet.
“I moved in July 2011, and played for the youth teams. My managers were Tim Sherwood and Les Ferdinand. Chris Ramsey helped me a lot, too.
“We had a lot of good players in the reserves – Kane, John Bostock, Andros Townsend, Alex Pritchard, Tom Carroll. Kane worked very hard. Nobody can deny that. He’s a good lad.”
Coulibaly also counts the likes of Peterborough, Newport, Kilmarnock and Partick Thistle among his former clubs.