He just wanted to get on with it.
“One time at school”, Mason Mount pauses although the memory seems still fresh. “A policeman came in to speak to us about a career after school.
“He came to me and I said: ‘I want to be a footballer’. He just laughed at me and said: ‘yeah, everyone wants to be a footballer’.”
The police officer clearly had no idea who he was talking to. And you cannot blame him. Mason Mount has had a desire very few can even think about matching. In any walk of life.
A fighting spirit his granddad has taken credit for.
“He’s a massive part of my life”, the grandson has himself admitted. “He always used to come to my training. He was a tough boxer and I was learning from him when I was younger.
“He was telling me to never give up and keep working hard.”
It was not all about the granddad – grandson relationship though.
“Mason’s passion for football was already in him”, believes Mason’s father, Tony. “It was just there. He was always kicking a ball all around the house, driving you mad.
“He would use his [older] sister as a target”, recalls Debbie Mount, Mason’s mum. “‘If I hit your head, that’s my bull’s eye!'”
“I knew nothing but football”, sums up Mason himself.
“He just wanted to get on with it and train”, Kevin Neal, Mount’s first coach, remembers. “He didn’t want to do what other little kids at the age of six did, messing about. He just wanted to train.”
There was a lot of enthusiasm, too.
“I try to base my free-kick on [Cristiano] Ronaldo, hit the ball by the valve so that it moves”, young Mason once said right in front of a camera. “That’s all I do. Top corner, top bins!”
He then did exactly what he had just said.
The passion soon resulted in progress. One that demanded a huge sacrifice. From Mason as well as from his parents.
“A scout approached us about Mason going up to the [Chelsea] development centre at Cobham”, Tony Mason revealed. “He was still playing Sunday football with Boarhunt and then Chelsea offered him a place in the academy.
“Then it became: Tuesday night training, Thursday night training, Saturday morning training and Sunday fixture.
“That would be regular from the age of eight up through to 14.
“It became grinding at times, for us as well as for Mason, but you just did it. He never missed many training sessions. I could probably count them on one hand!“
“At times we used to encourage him: ‘have a night off training, do something different, go to the party, have a sleepover’. He would say: ‘no, I want to go training’.”
Mason acted like a professional even before he became one.
“I was always so focused. I wanted to go home, have a good night’s sleep, ready for the next day, going to school and then training after.”
“It just seems like yesterday he was six years of age, bouncing and waiting to get in the car and drive up to the academy. He’s achieved what he always dreamt of and what he’s always believed in.”
BREAKTHROUGH 