Kalvin Phillips Quotes

"When I was younger, I was always that person that loved to get stuck in. When my mum and grandma used to come and watch me, I used to make sure that I wouldn't let anybody push me around and not let anybody bully me."

"I remember getting my first Leeds shirt, me and my brother."

"Billy Bremner... was the captain of a very successful side. He was quite small but feisty as anything and that's what I love, playing with people that get stuck in and don't get bullied by other teams."

"I just feel like when I come up against another team, I'll always look at their best players and I'll think, if I can stop these doing what they are doing, then I'll get noticed and I'll help the team as well."

"My family are all Leeds fans, they always tell me about the times when Leeds were in the Premier League."

"Aston Villa had been in touch and they'd gone into the Premier League so I knew I could play in the Premier League just like that."

"I wasn't a defender and I didn't think of myself as one."

"I was growing up around Leeds and I idolised Leeds. I went to Huddersfield and thought it was a good chance but I got there and felt like I didn't really fancy it."

"I was at Wortley Juniors until I was about 12 and then left for a season at Farsley."

"I'd gone to watch Wortley play in their home tournament but they didn't have enough players so I played for them. I got scouted by a guy called Sonny Sweeney and went to Leeds City Boys."

"I'm from Leeds so it's a big part of me and I like getting to know people, find out about them, see different backgrounds and where they've come from. Sometimes the struggles relate to my own struggles."

"The props of being a Leeds United player in my own home city is good and the rewards in football are very good so it helps me to look after my family and they are the reasons why I carried on pushing, to help my family."

"I didn't have much but my mum and grandma gave me as much as they could, but we weren't a rich family and we had to work hard for what we got."

"The manager is always on at us about mental strength anyway. He just comes in and stresses how important it is to be strong mentally, to succeed you've got to go through pain both mentally and physically."

"Football is the biggest sport in the world."

"I've been using the phrase Black Lives Matter quite a lot. I'm not saying that all lives don't matter, I'm just saying that right now black people need support and they need help because of the racism going on all around the world."