‘It was just a joy to watch’ – Millwall’s trio reveal what inspires them in football

The three Millwall players discussed which historical figures inspired them to step onto the field, from Thierry Henry to Eden Hazard.

The athletes who most influenced ZIAN Flemming, Aidomo Emakhu, and Brooke Norton-Cuffy as children have been named.

The three Millwall players are currently attempting to carve out their own professional paths and surpass some of their role models.

In interviews with NewsAtDen during the past month, all three players discussed the players that had the biggest influence on them when they were younger, including names like Neymar and Eden Hazard—Eden Hazard announced his retirement from football earlier this week.

The players that best represented themselves on the field captured Emakhu’s attention, a 19-year-old.

In terms of football players, he stated, “I have a few to be honest – Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi of course, and Neymar because I think he plays with freedom, and you can see that in his game. He’s just unrestrained and unhindered.

“I appreciate Eden Hazard. I enjoyed his ability to simply ghost past players while he was at Chelsea. For the same reason, I adored watching Jack Grealish while he was at Aston Villa.

“Of course Cristiano Ronaldo, with his goal-scoring mindset and overall prominence as a football role model. They would, however, be my favorite players to watch since I could try to glean something from each of their games and implement it into mine.

“They are the guys who smoothly dribble past opponents and create opportunities, and that is what I want to achieve with my career. I want to be able to beat a man easily, attempt to open up opportunities for the team, and score some goals and provide assists for my teammates.

Fascinatingly, while he considered his sources of inspiration, Flemming also referred to the ideas of freedom and expression.

Messi, as well as that Barcelona team, he added. Both the Pep Guardiola period [2008–2011] and the subsequent Neymar and Luis Suarez period [in 2015, when Barcelona won the Triple Crown] are examples of such periods.

“Watching it was just enjoyable. I would literally just look forward to watching them compete at the highest level against the finest teams while acting like they are on a playground. You could practically see the happiness, do you get what I mean? It’s enjoyable to watch them play football because they seemed to be having fun.

“[Football] is very serious, which is expected given how serious it is. But I believe that at its core, joy is what we should all strive for. If something goes wrong, we get annoyed, and if something doesn’t go our way, we get furious.

And even if things do go our way, we are still happy, just not as happy as we are when we lose. We should occasionally remember to appreciate the good things as well.

Brooke Norton-Cuffy claimed that having spent a portion of his youth career at Chelsea, he had a wealth of role models to look up to.

“I was at Chelsea when I was younger so I used to see the players walking around,” the wing-back claimed. And I used to attend their games at Stamford Bridge, where Eden Hazard was a joke when he played for the Premier League.

When I was younger, Hazard, Didier Drogba, Fernando Torres, and undoubtedly Cristiano Ronaldo played in the Premier League. When I was small, my brother would force me to watch football because I would be outside running around and attempting to play the game. But Ronaldo was a player I used to watch [willingly] and be like, “Wow.”