Sidi Sane: Leroy Sane's kid brother takes next step towards Schalke first team
Leroy Sane was just 18 when his made his senior debut for Schalke. Could younger brother, Sidi, be about to emulate the Manchester City and Germany star after being promoted to the Royal Blues' U17 team?
"Sidi is a real talent, and it's great to have him with the squad for pre-season," Schalke's U17 coach Frank Fahrenhorst told Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung on the 16-year-old.
"He can play in the attacking wide areas and has unbelievable pace, but we should try to avoid comparisons with his father and brothers."
If you didn't know, the Sanes are a very talented bunch.
Sidi's father played professionally in the 1980s-90s, scoring 51 goals in 174 Bundesliga outings for Kaiserslautern and Wattenschied, as well as 65 in 152 Bundesliga 2 games.
His lesser-known brother, Kim, also had designs on continuing the family business, having come through the Schalke academy before retiring because of injury in his early 20s. Their mother, Regina Weber, meanwhile, was an Olympic bronze medal-winning gymnast.
Then there is Leroy. Following in the footsteps of the likes of Mesut Özil, Manuel Neuer and Julian Draxler, he was one of the stars of the Schalke youth team that won the U19 Bundesliga in 2015 before being officially promoted to the senior squad later that summer.
He went on to register nine goals and seven assists in 42 appearances across all competitions in 2015/16, including a stunning long-range effort against Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League, and is widely regarded as one of the best players to come out of the Schalke academy.
Nowadays, Leroy, 23, is a two-time English Premier League champion with Man City and 21-time Germany international.
Watch: Leroy Sane's top 5 Bundesliga goals
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Souleymane says all three of his offspring are "far better" than he ever was. "It's in the genes!"
Young Sidi is the latest piece of evidence of that. Were it not for injury, we might have heard of him sooner.
"He's had a lot of bad luck, but he's got the quality," said Schalke U16 coach Willi Landgraf. "Not a lot of players have his gifts."
Sidi Sane - remember the name!
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