What have you learnt from your father that you would like to pass onto your own children one day?
I think self-belief is definitely one of them. That is probably the one thing. My dad has taught me loads of things – he is a huge inspiration of mine. No one else will believe in you if you don’t believe in yourself. When you know what you can do you have to try to do everything you can to achieve your goals and push yourself as far as you can in life. You rarely get second chances in life, so you have to take your opportunities when you get them. Those are some of the things he has taught me.
How much of an impact has your father had on your career? What advice has he given you?
He is the biggest - biggest impact of everyone. But of course I wouldn’t want to disrespect anyone in my household, my brother, my sister and my mum especially. My mum used to drive me everywhere and she does know a lot about football. My dad is someone I speak to nearly every day. We speak a lot about football, and not just about that but also about everything else. Regarding football, he is the one that has given me the most advice and that I have kept throughout my career and he knows my game more than anyone else. If he ever says anything critically – he rarely ever does that now – I’ll probably take his suggestions to heart more than anyone else’s. He is the one person who knows who I am so he knows how I play, what I should be doing and where I should be. I still listen to him to this day.
What do you do to show your parents you care?
I don’t think you can repay them. I have tried but you can never repay them. I can’t personally repay them for what they have done for me. They changed their lives for me, from the age of 13 they have made sacrifices for me – I don’t feel material things can repay them. My mom has her own Sturr Crazy sauce that she wants to do, so for sure I am going to help her do that. My dad has a record label and of course I am going to help him do anything he wants to do right now because they helped me live my dream. It is important that they have had dreams and they lived them, but as you get older you have more dreams you want to achieve, more things you want to do with your life. For me, it is important to help them live their new dreams, which are the sauce and the record label.
Do you ever buy presents for your dad to celebrate Father’s Day?
Of course, always – I always try to at least. He is probably one of the trendier men of his age category so he tries to buy everything himself. He tries to get everything that I would wear and wear it and think that he is young. That is my dad, pretty much in a nutshell. He dresses young, he is a young character with a young personality, like one of my friends really. Honestly, every person that meets my dad loves him, because he is a very young person at heart. He beats me to it with every single present I tried to buy him – he has already got it.
What Father’s Day message would you like to give to your dad?
‘I love you, man!’ - No, I am joking. I would probably just say 'Thanks for all the things you have done for me in my life. I want you to live as long as you can and have as many Father’s Days as you can so we can live our dreams together, and when I have kids we will remember the times we shared together.’
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