By Exjani Rojas —
After snuffing crosstown rivals Manchester United 3-0, Manchester City star Jeremy Doku celebrated setting up two goals by getting baptized.
“Today was for me already a victory. Why? Because I knew that after the game today I’m going to baptize myself, I’m going to be baptized,” the strong and speedy left winger said. “Maybe that’s why I felt like I was pushed today. That’s why I’m very happy with the performance as well.
There’s nothing more important to me than faith,” he added. “As a Christian, when you get baptized, your old nature, your old sinful nature dies, and you start living with God. You resurrect with God, with Jesus Christ.”
He was baptized in a pool with his wife Shireen in a ceremony officiated by Celebration Church Pastor Tim Timberlake from Florida (it is not known how the two became friends, possibly via Christian athlete networks”I see football as a ministry. It’s a way I can glorify Jesus through the game.”
Doku is very outspoken about his faith, saying God is by far a higher priority than soccer.
Doku grew up in Belgium in a family of Ghanaian heritage where Christianity was part of his background. However, in interviews and testimony videos, he describes reaching a point where faith became a personal commitment rather than simply a family tradition.
“I’m at the top, and that emptiness wasn’t filled,” he observed. Asked about what he wishes his legacy to be, he responded: “I want to be known as a Child of God before a football player.”
