It's good to be Daniel Sturridge right now. Not only are Liverpool sitting third in the Premier League and Sturridge leading the top scorers table, but the 24-year-old striker last week became the fastest player in the club's history to reach 20 goals. Next summer, he'll more than likely be on the plane to Brazil to lead the line for England at the World Cup. It's been a remarkable transformation for a player who less than a year ago was confined to the bench at Chelsea.

Today, however, it's a very different type of shooting on the agenda - Sturridge is both a marksman on the pitch and on Playstation alike. As such, Activision has signed him up to promote the latest instalment in the Call Of Duty franchise, Ghosts: Sturridge will take part in a celebrity tournament in London to mark the franchise's release.

Ahead of the event, we caught up with Sturridge in Liverpool to talk gaming, opening a restaurant and who he's excited to play at the World Cup...

**GQ: First, let's settle the debate: which was better, Kasami's goal against Crystal Palace or Jack Wilshere's against Norwich?

** Daniel Sturridge: That was a very, very difficult goal to score - the Kasami one - and fair play, I take my hat off to him.

To do that was world class in my opinion. So I think that was more difficult. When you watch teams like Barcelona and Bayern Munich, they do team goals all the time - and I love scoring team goals - but Kasami's goal was a stroke of brilliance.

**Call Of Duty: have you played the new one?

** I haven't played it yet! I can't wait though.

**Do you play the rest of the Liverpool squad?

** Yeah, we play with the other boys. There's a lot of banter between everybody. Everybody thinks they're the best at

Call Of Duty... but the stats don't lie! That's the facts, isn't it! [laughs] So people be taking photos on their phones and texting each other the numbers they got. So there's a lot of banter flying about. There's little weapons everyone has up their sleeves, bits of banter! It's good to have a game like Call Of Duty because it's really competitive, and everybody wants to be the best at it.

**You must play it a lot when you're somewhere like Brazil and have a lot of free time between training.

** You have a more time in hotels when you're away with the national team, and then everyone's on it. So I suppose if I do end up going to the World Cup, there will be Call Of Duty going on pretty much every day for hours. Hours!

**Are you an Xbox or Playstation guy?

** I play both. I think on the Xbox people play Call Of Duty more, so the standards may be higher. For me, personally, I think the serious gamers - the guys who know the levels - play Xbox and people who are just good at the game play PS3. I play PS3 because I'm not a serious, serious gamer like that. But when I play the Xbox, the standard is so much higher. I'm minimum a 20-25 kills guy on PS3... on the Xbox I'm more like 15 kills.

**Let's talk about clothes. Where are your high-tops from?

** They're Louis Vuitton. They're a few years old, to be honest - I bought them when I was in London ages ago. I bought two pairs, because I was thinking "you know what, these babies are too nice to let go. Just in case." I've not seen them since.

**They don't do reissues like you get with Nikes.

** Exactly. With other brands you don't really. Like with those Kanye West ones, the pink ones - you can't get them now.

They're my favourite, but I couldn't afford them at the time. To be fair, the Yeezys are coming out - he's got the Red Octobers out this month, so I'll hopefully get a pair of them. That would be nice.

**Is your watch an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak?

** I'm wearing an AP but I like Patek Philippe's more. I have a few that I like. AP is also a great brand, Hublot as well - I have one of those. I like watches. That's probably one thing I've got into more.

**Who is the most clothes obsessed person on the Liverpool squad?

** Clothes obsessed? Probably me actually! [laughs]

I'd say Jordan Henderson's got some good clothes. I call Stevie G James Bond, because he looks good in everything and he's got the lot. I called him James Bond at the weekend and I don't think he liked it, but that's what I'm calling him! Martin Skrtel's got some good clobber as well.

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**What about from the England team - anyone you'd nominate for the GQ Best-Dressed List?

** That looks good? No.

**Do you think there's a reason behind that? In the NBA and the NFL, players are all obsessed with clothes, but there's hardly anyone who dresses well in the Premier League.

** I think it's a different culture though. With the NBA and the NFL, they can be glamorous and wear the bling and dress how they dress and it's acceptable. Whereas in football, people frown upon that. They don't want you to have your own persona and do this and do that. With me, I like to express myself through fashion - I don't mind what people think about me. I guess that's probably why someone like Balotelli [made such an impact]... he doesn't really care, he dresses how he wants. But NBA and NFL players get to wear want they want to wear, so they can express themselves and they've got their own personality.

**What sort of music are you into?

** I love Jill Scott. I listen to Jessie Ware, I listen to

Drake, Jay Z, Kendrick Lamar. The Weeknd's probably my favourite. I listen to a lot of house music, dancehall, reggae. But I don't put myself in a box - I listen to everything. I probably spend too much on iTunes, to be honest.

**We hear you're quite into your cooking. Is it true your mother is opening a restaurant and releasing her own line of cooking sauces?

** My mum is doing some sauces, yeah. She's currently getting that in place, so that's going to be nice. Hopefully we'll have a restaurant open for as well. She deserves it, she's an amazing cook - everybody that tries her food enjoys it, and she can do so many different things. So we're probably going to open a restaurant. We'll have the sauces there also but we'll sell those separately.

**What kind of food will it be?

** It's a Caribbean type of thing. I don't know where, we're not too sure - maybe Birmingham. We'll see what happens. But we're certainly going to have one in the near future.

**What kind of thing do you cook at home?

** I make more light things, like fish: salmon, sea bass. I can do your steaks, chicken. Usual stuff really. Not anything too extravagant. I can cook but I don't really eat too much heavy food - I only start eating carbs on a Thursday or Friday before a game on Saturday. Before that I'll have light stuff like salads or just vegetables. I don't really have a nutritionist. I try to look after myself, but I don't have a diet or anything like that. I think you should eat what you want, and just work as hard as you can to enjoy it. If you like burgers and fries, eat burgers and fries - just make sure you work hard to not put the weight on. Otherwise it's going to show.

**You must get a lot of people talking to you about your celebration.

** It came about when me and my brother and my cousins were in my apartment. We were having a bit of banter and playing some music, and I ended up doing the dance. Then I ended up doing it in a nightclub, and then we were like "let's do it as a celebration".

And then it kind of just stuck.

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**What is your best piece of da****ncing advice?

** My best piece of advice would be if you can't dance, watch the movie Hitch and see Will Smith tell you what not to do. The slap of the face is the funniest part of that movie.

He's like "Don't do that! Stay in your lane!" [laughs] If you know you can't move, just keep it local. That's my phrase: keep it local.

**People have been talking about the England set up, and whether there's enough of a focus on technical ability in English football. Do you notice the influence of foreign players like Philippe Coutinho and Luis Suarez rubbing off on English players?

** When I was growing up - no disrespect to the English legends that we have - but I always used to watch Ronaldinho, Zidane, Thierry Henry, the original Ronaldo. Even when Faustino Asprilla was here, I used to watch him a lot. Even though I used to watch English players - Paul Gascoigne, Chris Waddle had a lot of technical ability, John Barnes, guys like that - I always used to watch foreign players. So I think for me the influence also came from playing football on the streets as a young player. Guys that don't make it are probably more technical than ones that do make it. I learned most of my skills from playing on the streets.

**You also learned how to dribble by watching videos of Pele. Have you had a chance to meet him yet?

** Never met him. Not yet. That would be an honour.

**Maybe in Brazil?

** Yeah, maybe!

**What other teams are you worried about in the World Cup?

** There's so many good teams. Brazil are playing good football. Belgium are looking good. Spain, as usual. Then there's always underdogs that do very well. Ghana did very well [last time] and were unlucky to go out. So I think there's always going to be surprises at the World Cup - it's all about getting a little bit of luck in the draw.

**Do you have a favourite goal you've scored? There was that back-heel for Chelsea...

** That was against Sunderland I scored the back heel. That was a nice goal. And the goal against Aston Villa was a nice one. I enjoyed being involved in the goal that Jose Enrique scored at home against Swansea - that was a nice goal. That was a team goal. I enjoyed being a part of that.

**Have you noticed a change in the philosophy at Liverpool this season?

** I think it's mental. Mentally we're stronger as a team.

Physically we're stronger. I think in every aspect we've improved and the additions we've got in the squad, also they've helped out.

We've had a leader like Kolo Toure in, who is very influential in how he goes about his business on and off the field. It's nice to have a guys like him around, so you get that mixture of young talent and experience.

**What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

** I don't know... I've had a lot of advice! I'd probably say to let go of all the fears and the pressures that you apply to yourself. To not worry about things you can't affect - it's more about doing what you can affect. That's down to you to work hard and show what you can do.

*Daniel Sturridge will be leading a squad of fans in a celebrity Call of Duty: Ghosts tournament at the IndigO2 on 4<sup>th</sup> November. To be in with a chance of being on his team, tweet explaining why you should be part of his squad using

GhostsSturridge and #CallofDutyTime. To find out more and watch the action live on the night go to callofdutytime.com*