Zian Flemming on the excitement and anticipation of a player realizing a childhood ambition to compete in England's top football league.
The fixture list reveal marked a pivotal moment, transforming abstract aspirations into tangible reality. Discover how experiencing Premier League games as a child shaped this player's career path and fueled a desire to reach the highest level of competition. Now, family trips to English football matches take on a whole new meaning.
00:00Zien, have you come down from Clyde Nairn after last season yet?
00:04Yeah, it's been a while. It's been over two months now. That part is done now.
00:15Obviously, looking onto the Premier League, you must have enjoyed it when the fixture list came out.
00:21It's obviously a dream come true, isn't it, to test yourself in the Premier League?
00:26Yeah, 100%. Up until that fixture list came out, I didn't really think too much about it, to be honest.
00:35I just lived my life, had my holiday and was preparing for pre-season.
00:40But then when the fixture list came out, it then hit me and a little rush went through my body when I saw those first fixtures.
00:48And I was like, okay, it's real. And also, it's real from the beginning.
00:52We played against some big teams straight away in some big stadiums. Yeah, beautiful now.
00:59Yeah, so a little boy growing up in Holland, obviously, is the Premier League something that everybody aspires to?
01:04You know, a little boy playing football?
01:06Yeah, I think you've got the Premier League, Champions League and World Cups kind of thing.
01:12That's, as a kid, what you dream of. And yeah, this is the highest level. This is, yeah, the highest, the best league in the world in that sense.
01:24So obviously, yeah, that is where you want to play. And yeah, as a kid, I used to, as a family, we used to visit Premier League games during the winter break.
01:35When we had winter holiday, we used to go to England in December to grab, like, Boxing Day games at United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, whatever.
01:43And then, yeah, it feels like a full circle moment that then now my family can still make those trips, but without me, but still with me, just in a different perspective.
