Alexander Isak's parents made decision that shaped his life before he was even born

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The striker is at the AXA Training Centre in Kirkby for his medical ahead of a £125m move to Anfield on transfer deadline day.

The 25-year-old will become the most expensive signing in the club's history, eclipsing the £116m deal struck with Bayer Leverkusen for Florian Wirtz in June, and a six-year contract will be penned.

Liverpool are currently top of the Premier League after defeating Arsenal 1-0 yesterday to make it three wins out of three so far.

The blockbuster deal brings a summer-long saga to an end that has seen Isak both privately and publicly agitate to leave St James' Park to join Arne Slot's champions, a stance which has led to him taking strike action in the North East.

Away from the pitch, Isak has been noted as someone who keeps himself to himself, choosing to only share football-related pictures on his Instagram page.

One thing the 25 year-old has opened up on however is his upbringing.

He was born in Solna, just north of Stockholm city centre in Sweden.

Isak’s parents are from Eritrea, a country in north Africa that has been gripped by political instability for decades.

The Foreign Office currently advises against all travel within 25km of all of Eritrea’s land borders because of high tensions between the country and neighbouring Ethiopia.

An interview with The Times in 2023 described Isak as “a resolute yet reserved character” with the striker’s determination to succeeded “rooted in the sacrifices of his parents, who fled Eritrea during its second civil war.”

In the interview, Isak said: “They gave me everything, not just in terms of how I lived, but to become the man I am — the discipline, the hard work.

All those details you need to be successful, I got from them.”

The second civil war took place from February 1980 to March 1981.

Across the entire civil war, which ran from September 1974 to May 1991, it is estimated that around 400,000 to 579,000 people were killed in the conflict with hundreds of thousands of Eritreans being displaced.

Isak expanded on this in an interview with former Newcastle striker Alan Shearer earlier this year.