Ruben Loftus-Cheek Quotes

When I first arrived at Napoli, I was the ball boy, which meant that I got to watch as the legends trained. Then, once I joined the youth team as a young teenager, I was a midfielder just like Tardelli.

Me being at Coventry, instead of a big Premier League club, probably helped me develop. You don't get put in the academy system, playing Under-18s and Under-23s.

For the fans, for the club, for the young players, I want to show there is a pathway at Fulham for young players to go through in the first team.

I learnt so much at Coventry - I was playing as a regular at 17, most weeks. And that's something that left me in good stead.

I played for Barcelona, for Ajax, where it's important to develop and integrate young talent.

But we had a fantastic coach, Simon Clifford, who runs a British football youth game which teaches Brazilian techniques - which is what we wanted to incorporate into the film. And some of those things we eventually got in.

Most of the youngsters I grew up playing with do not have a career in the game now. Sometimes people think it is easy to be a footballer, but it is hard work that never stops.

If we are encouraging kids to go into academies, then presumably we are selling them the dream that they can play first-team football.

For me, playing through all the youth teams at Borussia Dortmund was a really good experience because I was able to play against talented opponents at a relatively early age.

At the Barcelona youth academy, I lived right next to Camp Nou, but I spent my days watching movies.

I had a lot of dealings with Bergkamp. I started with the under-17s at Ajax, and he was the assistant coach. Once or twice a week, we had individual one-to-one training sessions. You just watched Bergkamp. When you see him in training, he had skills that a guy just shouldn't be allowed to have.

Coaching for tackles? That's something you do with seven-year-olds, when you show them how to stand and when to make a block. It is one of the basics of the game. No Premier League manager needs to coach it.

I can remember when I was a 17-year-old at Swansea and Terry Yorath and Tommy Hutchison were in charge.

I remember my first practice, from Pee Wee football when I was, like, 10, and I didn't know what was going on.

I got my first taste of real professional football on loan at Northampton. I was 18 at the time, and I played only nine games, but it was a massive opportunity for me.

I began my journey as a 16-year-old boy at the Arsenal's academy, trying to one day become a first team player, going out for evening runs in East Barnet with Jack Wilshere.

In Holland you go into amateur teams, come up through the ranks and are generally spotted for senior or professional football. At 16, I had made it into a men's amateur team, and was picked up professionally from there.

I signed as an 11-year-old for Everton. I broke into the Under-18s at the age of 14, then the reserves at 15, then I was in the first-team squad at 16.

There is a big emphasis at Liverpool to have an academy that brings through young players.

At the age of 16, when I had my first traning session with the first-team squad, I came into the cabin and there stood Ribery and he said: 'Come here, sit down. Take the locker beside me.'

Chelsea is a fantastic place for young kids. They develop you, work you hard, and you can see they have top-class talent all around the world.

Beckham was the one I always looked up to - the technique, his crossing on the move or set-pieces. But as a kid, I just played with my brother. He was playing for Oldham, in League One and League Two, and he's the one I really looked up to.

I played for Middlesbrough's youth team. At the age of 16, I went into a shed at the training ground and was told that they weren't signing me on, so that was the end of that dream. Football was my life. I played football when I got to school, football every break and football as soon as I got home.

I've won a lot of trophies - like the FA Youth Cup and the reserves league a couple of times - but it would top it off to win the Premier League with the first team.

I'll always be proud to say I played at Chelsea, at Valencia, in the youth system at Real Madrid, in the youth system at Real Oviedo, and for United.