Mason Mount is not a person who likes to stand still. The Chelsea and England midfielder is a blur of movement on the pitch and he enjoys finding ways to improve his game during his down time. “I love football,” Mount says. “Any chance I get to watch games, learn how I can be better, I’ll do that. That helps: to be fully focused on being the best you can be.”
It is no wonder that José Mourinho has been raving about Mount’s football brain this week. The 22-year-old has had an outstanding season, helping Chelsea win the Champions League, and it will be fascinating to watch his duel with Luka Modric when England meet Croatia at Wembley on Sunday.
There is mutual respect between the pair. They were on opposite sides when Chelsea beat Real Madrid in the last four of the Champions League and Modric was so impressed with Mount that he asked for his shirt after seeing him score during the closing stages of the second leg at Stamford Bridge.
It was a moment to savour for Mount. He has studied Modric closely and had asked Mateo Kovacic, Chelsea’s Croatian midfielder, to help him get the 36-year-old’s shirt before the first leg. “I managed to do that and he asked for mine in the second game because I didn’t actually give him mine in the first,” Mount says. “Kova said he likes to swap with players, so he came up and said he wanted mine. It was brilliant to speak to him. I was quite overwhelmed.
“He has always been a player that I have looked up to. Ever since he has been in the Premier League with Tottenham, I have watched him quite closely. Playing against him, it was weird because I had watched him so much, I kind of knew his moves and what he was going to do.”
Modric is not the only member of Mount’s fan club. His managers love him too. Frank Lampard gave Mount his Chelsea debut, Thomas Tuchel has called him “the full package” and Gareth Southgate has made him a key part of the England team.
Mount has come so far since his days on loan at Vitesse Arnhem in the Eredivisie and Derby in the Championship. He rose through Chelsea’s academy and has established himself as one of the best players in the Premier League, scoring, creating and constantly driving his team forward.
There is a relentlessness to Mount. When Lampard was sacked by Chelsea in January, some doubted whether Mount’s luck was about to run out. Tuchel even named him on the bench in his opening game. Yet Mount is tough. It is not in his nature to hide or sulk. He made his point to Tuchel forcefully, made himself undroppable and provided the assist for Kai Havertz when Chelsea beat Manchester City in the Champions League final.
Now he is thinking about how to help England win Euro 2020. Croatia will be tough. It could be 28C in London on Sunday afternoon. “It’s going to be a tough game,” Mount says. “But I think a lot of the boys have had experience of dealing with this.”
Mount is ready, even though he has played 64 games for club and country this season. “We’ve played a lot of football but I think when you’re coming into a major tournament all of that goes out the window,” he says. “That tiredness in the legs, you don’t really worry about that.”
All that matters is beating Croatia, and Mount does not plan to swap shirts with Modric this time. “I think I’ll look to keep every shirt I wear at the Euros,” he says. “I don’t want to give them away.”
