Angel Gomes on his England call up and building career overseas
04/09/2024
St george's Park, `Burton, `uk
04/09/2024
St george's Park, `Burton, `uk
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SportsTranscript
00:00address you all as a squad when you first got together and what was his message to the group?
00:06No it was he addressed us all as the squad and then obviously there was new faces that were in
00:14the squad and just said obviously all the more experienced players will be able to
00:23kind of help the new faces that have come in and from then it's been very very easy.
00:28Can I just ask you're obviously close to Nanny and with family as well was there any pressure
00:35on you to say look can you play you fancy playing for Portugal? It's funny you say that
00:42I think from young you know my dream was always been to play for England you know my dad he played
00:48for Portugal and growing up in all the age groups and my brother when he was younger as well
00:56played in the younger age group for Portugal but whenever me and my dad spoke he's always wanted
01:02me to go my own pathway with England and ever since I've been playing for England in the
01:10younger academies the aim was always to to make it to the seniors.
01:16Hi Angel you talk about the hardest point for you being when you left England
01:21can you talk about whether that gave you a real motivation to really get to this level?
01:28Yeah of course it gave me a big motivation because there was obviously players that I played with
01:35that would go into their national team playing in France also and you know it gave me the
01:41motivation to know that just because I'm playing in a different league I can still get to where
01:47I want to get to you know but obviously it depends on me and the level that I play at
01:53to be able to help me get there and you know like I said it the the consistency that you can bring
02:04into your game will obviously help you in the long run and getting selected for your country.
02:09Can I also just ask you do you get recognised in the street in England?
02:12Yeah yeah sometimes yeah yeah I just think you've blossomed sort of overseas.
02:17No of course yeah but I'll I'm very easy I'll go back home and I'll like I'm I'm just very
02:25very chilled so whenever I get recognised that I don't try and hide or shy away from it.
02:31And you're on Nanny he's your godfather yeah yeah and is is he actually close to you?
02:37Yeah well we see a lot of him has he been an influence on your career?
02:44Yeah he's been a big influence funny enough I spoke to him last last week he's someone that
02:50you know he'll check up on me see how I'm doing and he was an influence on me growing up you know
02:56obviously playing for the club that I played for and I was a fan of he was someone that I used to
03:04watch and someone that used to give me joy but knowing him on a personal level was amazing because
03:11I could see how he was not just on the pitch but off the pitch so.
03:16Did he play with your dad?
03:20No my dad's way older than him.
03:25Hi just just a couple of points to clarify there was were you ever I mean you said you
03:30always wanted to play for England and that was always going to be the case but
03:34as the years went on were you ever directly approached by Portugal to go and join them?
03:41Well recently my dad had conversations with people that he knows but nothing really
03:51got advanced nothing was really advanced you know some of the players that my dad
03:57played with when he was younger are high people in the Portuguese FA and he'd had conversations
04:04with them but nothing was really advanced or went ahead so my my focus was was on England.
04:12And just to follow up with something you said earlier about it's only naturally
04:17the attention and recognition is less when you're playing in France rather than the Premier League
04:22is this sort of your chance now to sort of showcase your talent to people who watch the
04:27Premier League, Premier League clubs, Premier League managers to give yourself you know that wider
04:34recognition? Yeah but it's not it's not necessarily my focus you know
04:40my focus is just doing as well as possible and whatever comes of it comes of it you know
04:45it's not to kind of put myself in a position to try and sound like an underdog or it's just
04:57how it is really and you know like I said if I do well for my club and I can showcase myself
05:06at a global level and that's what I try trying to do.
05:14Lee said that last week that people enjoy watching you play he thinks people enjoy so
05:18what do you think you can bring to the team what is your what you what you think people will see?
05:26Someone that is brave I like to say I'm brave I like to to take risks I like to help the team in
05:36every phase of the pitch whether it's to help the team play out or whether it's to control the game
05:41or whether it's to get the team as high with the ball as quick as possible you know it's something
05:49that I'm comfortable comfortable doing really so I think that part of my game will be able to be shown.
06:01I have a very short question have you had any approaches during your time in France to
06:05come back to the family you go to in this football?
06:12I have but you know I think I believe that everything will happen naturally and at its own
06:22at its own time and you know I'm really I'm really chilled so you know if something
06:33was to come up that would make sense then I always say like you never know in football that's all I
06:40say. Can you tell us which clubs they were?
06:51Hi Angel you said that you understand that recognition was probably going to be less
06:56over here while you were in in France and in Portugal than if you'd been in the Premier League
07:00did that ever weigh on your mind at all while you were over there because you knew how well
07:05you were playing and you've said how keen you were to play for England at senior level?
07:08No not necessarily because like I said there was players that I was playing with that was
07:12getting called up for the national team and they was getting called up for big national like you
07:19know so if if they can't there was no reason for myself not to be able to get called up you know and
07:29I've managed to do that and obviously I'm proud of myself for that and
07:36you know there was other players, Sancho at the time, at Dortmund, Jude at the time you know and
07:44so I knew that I could give myself the best possibility but obviously it's down to myself
07:50to be able to get myself to this this situation now. You said that it was a difficult time because
07:56of how much your life was changing when you first went what did sort of methods did you put in place
08:01to make sure that you could adapt to that much change?
08:06I think indulging myself in the environment that was in you know initially it was it was difficult
08:13but I thought by trying to obviously learn the language to get closer to my teammates to
08:21understand the club a bit more and the fans and everything that was going on it would help me
08:28and I think after a period of time I could see myself slowly being happier and you know
08:37immersing myself more into to the squad and into the environment.
08:41Okay I was gonna have to end it there so sorry to the two waiting.