David was a hero and mentor – and now I can’t wait to face him
MOUNT REVEALS HOW LUIZ PUT HIM ON PATH TO TOP
MASON MOUNT spent several years looking up to David Luiz during their time together at Chelsea.
But today at Wembley he hopes to be looking down on him from the dizzy heights of becoming an FA Cup winner for the first time in his blossoming career.
As he came through the academy at Stamford Bridge, Mount says he was starstruck whenever he saw Brazil international Luiz.
The two became friends and Luiz would offer the teenage wannabe advice that he hoped would take him to the top.
Luiz, 33, is now with bitter London rivals Arsenal, but the two have remained good friends.
Mount, 21, has a lot to thank Luiz for but he will not be doing his old team-mate any favours in English football’s showpiece final. He said: “He was always brilliant with the younger boys coming through the academy. I have a picture with him when I was probably about 13. I always looked up to him.
“You know David, he’s a very jokey character. He would come over and have a laugh. He was obviously someone we all look up to. All I wanted to do was go and say hello and speak with him and have a laugh with him. That’s what he did.
“It makes you feel very comfortable being around the first-team players. He has loads of experience so, for me, as a younger player, speaking with him and being around him I learned so much. I get on very well with David.
“It was a memory that will stick with me for a long time. I was a bit starstruck and nervous.”
Luiz did not hang around long enough to see Mount’s rapid rise to becoming an England international.
The defender swapped Stamford Bridge for the Emirates last summer and since then Mount has taken the chance to establish himself as one of the most talented prospects in English football.
Mount, who travelled to Wembley with his dad in 2008 to watch his beloved Portsmouth beat Cardiff and lift the FA Cup, said: “When I came back in pre-season I was speaking to David. He has played for some of the best clubs in the world.
“He’s scored in a World Cup. We speak now and again. I can’t remember the last time he messaged me, but I think it was after a win or when I scored and he said, ‘Well done, keep it going’. He messages me now and again. But I’m looking forward to facing him on Saturday.”
In his breakthrough season, Mount has made 51 appearances and scored eight goals. But he was also the victim of Frank Lampard’s ruthless streak when he was hooked at half-time during his side’s quarter-final win over Leicester. In the semi-final, Mount was back to help the Blues sink Manchester United with a second-half goal.
And he admits “One minute he [Lampard] can put his arm around you and tell you you’ve been doing well. Then, if he doesn’t think you have, he will take you off and you will know about it.
“He has definitely got that side to him. But he has given me a lot of confidence to go out there, express myself and play my game.
“As a younger player coming through, you can get a lot of confidence from that. You can see that from a lot of the younger players this season.”