Jadon Sancho has credited Chelsea pair Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba has key inspirations during his most formative years as a young footballer.
The 20-year-old has enjoyed a meteoric rise since swapping Manchester City for Borussia Dortmund, quickly becoming one of the most sought-after talents in Europe and the focus of a £120million summer transfer battle between Chelsea and Manchester United .
Having started his journey in south London, with a Southwark Under-11s team, it was Lampard and Drogba a little further west who most impressed a younger Sancho busy trying out tricks seen on YouTube.
“It was all about learning skills and expressing myself,” he told The Independent late last year.
“I like adapting that to a real game. It makes defending harder because opponents don’t think you have those sort of skills. “It gives you an advantage against some players and luckily enough it’s been working out for me.”
He added: “Ronaldinho was the main guy I used to watch on YouTube. But I liked Frank Lampard quite a lot and Didier Drogba when they were playing for Chelsea. “They were the three players I looked up to.”