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James Maddison’s soccer-crazy family will be glued to their screens when the Premier League leaders take on the champions on Sunday night. There’s just one problem: the Leicester star’s mother, Una, is a Liverpool fan.
Maddison’s parents were at Anfield for this match last season, when their son scored the equalizer, but Liverpool claimed a 2-1 win with a controversial injury time penalty.
“She will be watching the game closely and I will make sure she supports Leicester and not Liverpool,” smiles Maddison as she talks to Sportsmail about Zoom from Leicester training ground on Belvoir Drive.
“ I always take her out and tell her she’s just a glory hunter, but she and my Aunt Catherine are huge Liverpool fans and have been for years. I’ve seen pictures of them when they were younger in the Liverpool tops so she’s not just one of those fake ones who jumped on the bandwagon.
I try to keep her at bay about it. She was in one of the Anfield pits last year when I scored and that was a great moment for her, she got a little excited. But I didn’t hear about their reaction when they scored the winning goal in the 91st minute! She could have jumped for that one, who knows? She was disappointed in the car on the way home, but I’m not so sure.
Maddison talks as he plays: bold, handsome, and with noticeable swagger. He wants to be the main man and sees no reason to hide it, hence his disappointment at missing England’s latest team and his certainty that ‘there is a hole for me’ in the national team.
One example is instructive: Instead of delegating his social media activity to a management company, as many sports stars do, Maddison likes to get stuck, whether it’s promising signed shirts or boots for fans, or trading taunts with Jeremy Clarkson. The TV personality said on Twitter that Maddison spends too much time combing his hair; Maddison responded by telling Clarkson that he should be very lucky.
“I won’t be hiring a public relations firm anytime soon,” he muses. ‘I’m James Maddison, I don’t want anyone else to be James Maddison to me.
‘I see interviews with other people in sports and they are so boring and scripted, it’s the same thing. Okay, since we are all different, but I want to show who I am, whether you see me on the street, come to training ground or watch me play. The manager always talks about playing with personality and I love being fouled and booed by rival fans. It’s just me, so when I saw Clarkson’s tweet, I thought I’d go back.
“He doesn’t get a free kick just because he’s not a footballer. It was all fun and good-hearted. I never heard from him so I’m going to win on that one. ‘
Yet accompanying Maddison’s self-confidence is a fierce dedication to soccer and a childlike enthusiasm for the sport. Before our interview, Maddison, who turns 24 on Monday, marvels at a clip of Diego Maradona working his magic in a Napoli training ground that resembles a rice field. He describes himself as a “student of the game” and rarely misses a televised game when he is not playing.
During the spring close, Maddison returned to the family home in Coventry and when the Bundesliga became the first major European league to reboot after the close, he and his father Gary devoured every match. He went ‘keepy-uppy against the wall’ and played his little brother Ben out in the field, being very careful to avoid his X-rated sliding tackles.
However, none of this replaced the game. The suspension from soccer, plus a hip injury that required surgery, meant Maddison started just five league games between March 9 and November 8. For a man who loves the spotlight as much as he loves his job, there have been tough days.
“I play soccer because I love it,” he says. “When you’re a little kid, you don’t see the end of the journey where fame, money, contracts and agents come into play.
Some people will lose that love, but I never will. I love coaching, I love discussing the game, I love listening to the coach (Brendan Rodgers), the tactical side, learning and improving.
‘I don’t just go in and collect my money. I go home and watch all the games on TV, in the Premier League and the Championship.
So when you are injured, there are dark days. You ask yourself, and when you’re not as sharp as you’d like in those first few sessions, you get frustrated. You sit in the locker room, desperate to get back to your best. What happens if the same player does not return?
Then they forget you a bit, they talk about other players (more than you) and they push you aside. I like to put pressure on myself, I like to be who people are talking about and analyzing, almost like they have a ‘Player Cam’ on me.
“I like being the main player and I want people to talk about James Maddison again. In recent weeks I have felt as strong as for a year and I hope I can continue in the Premier League and in Europe. ‘
Leicester’s poor second half from last season, when they lost a Champions League spot on the final day despite spending most of the campaign in the top four, left many questioning how they would perform in this period, to even though finishing fifth was still a challenge. impressive achievement.
There have been no signs of a hangover in the first few weeks, as Rodgers’ men have added 18 points out of a possible 24, including victories at Manchester City and Arsenal, to move to the top, as well as maximum points from their first three games of Europe. League games.
Maddison attributes his good start to a meeting the team and staff held at The Grove hotel in Hertfordshire in the off-season, when Rodgers divided them into groups of four and five to review the 2019-20 campaign and suggest how they could make it even better. . this time.
Maddison was in a group with Marc Albrighton, goalkeeping coach Mike Stowell and two members of the Under 23 team.
He then had to make a presentation that lasted ‘about 50 minutes’ for the rest of the group, and hopes it will be the starting point of a season to rival Leicester’s 2015-16 Premier League title campaign, which Maddison labels as’ the biggest loser. achievement in sports history. ‘
“When you’re in training camp, the whole place reminds you (of the title win),” he explains. “I am very close to Marc Albrighton, and he and all the other champions talk about it with fond memories. I was in Coventry at the time and was sure Leicester would drift away, so much so that I refused to put any of them on my fantasy team.
Everyone has replica Premier League trophies at home and I’m jealous of that. It is the greatest you can achieve and the one that I really want to win. Hopefully I can join the club one day.
‘I have a trophy cabinet at home and there are quite a few there, but they are all individual trophies. There are not enough with massive handles, that’s what it’s all about. I think we have the tools to challenge those titles.
“That meeting helped us put last season behind us. The coach always talks about mentality and that has changed.
‘When we go into the big games now, we think,’ We’re going to win this. ‘ I don’t see why we can’t go to Liverpool and play like we did at City and Arsenal. ‘
Success at the club level should also bring international recognition. However, until now, Maddison’s absolute action in England has been limited to 34 minutes as a substitute against Montenegro a year ago.
Speaking for the first time about his visit to a casino in October 2019, after England sent him home due to illness, Maddison rejects the idea that he may influence Gareth Southgate’s thinking today.
“That was nothing,” he stresses. “They removed me from the squad because I was sick and a couple of days later I felt better.
“ I went and watched the game and had a card game because it’s a hobby of mine and it was magnified to a level that it should never have been. I was chosen in the next team and I made my debut.
“ You have to be careful, especially with social media and camera phones, but if I am chosen for England it will be purely for football reasons.
“Now I see England and I know there is a place for me. I know that I can go and have an impact on the international stage; it’s just about being patient.
‘I’ve tried and want more. Look at Jack Grealish: Before the Belgium game, he had never gotten off to a competitive start, and then he was the best player on the field.
It’s about taking risks and I know I’m capable. Hopefully it comes soon. ‘
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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