James Maddison Quotes

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.

Going with England and the Under-21s was great for me.

There has been a great list of players who cut their teeth in Europe.

My two years at Juve were fantastic. I was just a lad when I arrived, and I was a real footballer when I left.

I think that it is advantageous to join Bayern Munich at a young age.

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.

I started lower down the leagues with Coventry, so I'd had that taste of first-team action at a young age. I'd already played 40 or 50 games before moving on, and when I got to Norwich, I had to bide my time at the start.

I started in League One and went up into the Championship and then into the Premier League, so I've played a lot of games from quite a young age.

I learned so much during my time at United. Sharing a dressing room with Paul Scholes, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Ruud van Nistelrooy, and Ryan Giggs at such a young age was an amazing experience. I didn't play as much as I would have liked, but it was a master's degree in development both as a player and a person.

NFL Europe helped me quite a bit. It was a situation where I came out of college and spent the first few months of my career over in Europe.

I love the thought of the AAF giving players a chance to earn experience through playing the game of football at a high level. And letting players showcase their skills and continue to develop.

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.

The Champions League is massive. I've had so much experience. I'm only 23, and yet I've played so much in the Champions League, and not many players my age would have had that experience.

Hopefully, now there are kids, both male and female, even senior players, who open themselves up now and are more open to going abroad and playing their football. I've learnt so much, and they can, too.

Liverpool give young players a good opportunity.

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 think for every young player of my age, they have to go out on loan. I know there's an U21 league and the Europa League for the youth teams, but it's not the same as playing men's football, when there's a lot more riding on it.

Going to Cardiff was a really good experience for me. I managed to get quite a few games under my belt at Premier League level, which was good, and I feel like I've come back a better player.

Playing at a club like Chelsea and being given the opportunity to play with the world-class players that we have means you can learn from them and improve your game.

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

There are quite a lot of young players around now with undoubted talent who get stuck in academies at big clubs.

A lot of the guys who played in the 1995 final for Ajax had been there since the age of 12 or 13. Patrick Kluivert and Edgar Davids had been there from age seven or eight, so I had a lot of catching up to do.

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.

The opportunity to work with Antonio Conte, a brilliant coach, and some of the best players in the world was too good to turn down.

Since I made my debut at Sheffield United, I felt like I could step on and climb the leagues.