Speaking on the Sky Sports Football YouTube channel, Ryan Fredericks has been discussing his time as a young player at Tottenham Hotspur.
Fredericks may be an established player for West Ham these days, but once upon a time, he was a bright talent coming through at Spurs.
Fredericks was asked to train with the first-team from as young as 16, and he says he used to get a bit starstruck when playing alongside Luka Modric.
What’s Fredericks said?
The right-back spoke about being starstruck when coming through at Tottenham.
“Yeah, when I was a kid and when I was coming through at Tottenham and I was like 16, I was training with the first-team. That’s when they had players like Modric and people like that, when you’re young you look up to those types of players, and for that first five or 10 minutes you’d be taken aback by him,” Fredericks said.
Can’t blame him
We can’t really blame Fredericks for being taken aback by Modric. After all, the Croatian is one of the greatest midfielders of all time.
Indeed, since he was playing alongside Fredericks at Spurs, he’s gone from strength to strength.
He’s led Croatia to a World Cup final, won four Champions Leagues with Real Madrid and even won a Ballon d’Or.
It’s not surprising to hear that Modric used to blow Fredericks away in Spurs training, and it’s a real shame that Tottenham sold him before he was able to hit his prime in the Premier League.
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