Speaking on the Sky Sports Football YouTube channel, Declan Rice has been discussing his breakthrough at West Ham and if he was ever starstruck by a teammate.
Rice was integrated into the first-team at West Ham from a young age, and while he quickly took to Premier League football like a duck to water, he says he was starstruck during his first few senior training sessions at West Ham.
Indeed, Rice says he was simply blown away by the quality on show from Dimitri Payet when he was first breaking into the team.
What’s Rice said about Payet?
The midfielder spoke about Payet’s brilliance when he broke into the senior side.
“Probably when I first got into the team from the Under 23s. Payet was there. Obviously you would watch him on the tele and then you’d watch him train and he’d do the exact same things as he was doing on the pitch, and you’d just think wow,” Rice said.
Incredible player
It’s hard to put into words just how good Payet was during that period at West Ham.
The Frenchman was, quite simply, amongst the best footballers in the world at that point. Every week he did something absolutely ridiculous on the pitch, and we can only imagine that he tried even more audacious things on the training ground.
Rice is one of the best players in the Premier League right now, but West Ham haven’t had a player quite as flashy as Payet since the 34-year-old was sold back to Marseille.
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