After developing in the Chelsea Academy for over a decade, picking up tricks of the trade becomes a natural part of the learning process, although there is one piece of advice from Jose Mourinho that Mason Mount remembers clearly.
The midfielder was a teenager at the time and was invited to be a ball boy at Stamford Bridge home fixtures, an experience he describes as being ‘a big thing for me.’ However, it is the words of Mourinho, who was Chelsea boss at the time, that sticks in Mount’s mind as he recalls watching those games from the sidelines.
‘The first thing I really remember was being a ball bay at the games,’ he said. ‘That was a big thing for me. I was so buzzing about that and you can’t really be any closer than that!
‘One moment that stands out was under Jose Mourinho. If we were winning in Champions League games then he would tell us to keep hold of the ball and not to throw it back so quickly!’
Mount’s ball boy memories are featured in ‘The Pride’, an exclusive new series that goes behind the scenes to tell the story of the man behind the player and their rise to the top at Stamford Bridge.
This first 15-minute film hears from Mount’s family and first football coach, as well as the player himself on his journey from football-mad kid through the Academy to Vitesse, Derby and now the men’s first team.
You can watch the full film now on our Chelsea YouTube channel.