ZIAN Flemming, Aidomo Emakhu and Brooke Norton-Cuffy have revealed which players most inspired them growing up.
The Millwall trio are all trying to forge their own career currently and reach the heights of some of their heroes.
Speaking to NewsAtDen over the last month, all three reflected on which players had the most impact on them when they were younger with the likes of Eden Hazard, who announced his retirement from football earlier this week, and Neymar among the names that cropped up.
For Emakhu, 19, it was the players who expressed themselves best on the pitch that most captivated him.
He said of his icons: “I have a few to be honest – Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi of course, Neymar because I think when he plays football he plays with freedom, you can see it in his game. He’s just free and free-flowing.
“I like Eden Hazard. When he was at Chelsea, I liked his ability to just ghost past players. I loved watching Jack Grealish when he was at Aston Villa for the same reason.
“Obviously Cristiano Ronaldo – his mentality of scoring goals and just being a big role model in football. But off the top of my head they’d be my favourite players to watch because they each have something in their game that I could take out and try to put it into my game.
“They’re the players that dribble past players effortlessly and they make things happen and that’s what I want to do with my career. I want to be able to able to beat a man with ease and try create opportunities for the team and get some goals and assists for myself.”
Interestingly, Flemming also referenced the concept of freedom and expression as he reflected on his inspirations.
He said: “Messi … and that team of Barcelona as well. That Pep Guardiola one [from 2008-11] but also the one after with Neymar [and Luis Suarez in 2015 where Barcelona won the treble].
“It was just a joy to watch. I would literally just look forward to watching it and seeing them play like they are in a playground but doing it at the top level against the best teams. You could just see the joy, do you know what I mean? They just enjoyed playing football and that’s a nice thing to watch.
“[Football] is so serious which is normal because it is serious. But I think in the end joy is the foundation of it and sometimes we all forget that. We get frustrated if it goes wrong and really angry if it doesn’t go our way. And if it does go our way, we are happy but we are not as happy as we are unhappy when we lose. Sometimes we shouldn’t forget that the nice things are there as well and enjoy them.”
Meanwhile, Brooke Norton-Cuffy said that spending part of his youth career at Chelsea gave him plenty of figures to look up to.
The wing-back said: “I was at Chelsea when I was younger so I used to see the players walking around. And I used to go watch their matches at Stamford Bridge and Eden Hazard, when he was in the Prem, was a joke.
“Hazard, Didier Drogba, Fernando Torres and obviously Cristiano Ronaldo was in the Prem when I was younger. My brother used to sit down and make me watch football when I was younger as I used to be outside, running around and trying to play football. But Ronaldo was someone I used to sit down and watch [willingly] and … wow.”