West Ham star says he knew Declan Rice would be a top player after incident during 2016 friendly

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West Ham star Aaron Cresswell says he knew Hammers teammate Declan Rice would be a top player after an incident during a friendly back in 2016.

Rice will be back in action leading West Ham against Wolves this weekend as they look to go level on points with Premier League leaders Chelsea with a third of the season gone.

The midfielder sat out England’s latest internationals with a bout of flu.

But it will take more than that to knock the West Ham talisman off his stride.

The world is slowly starting to wake up to Rice’s supreme talent. He has had to gradually earn the respect of many rival fans and pundits with top performance after top performance for club and country over the last couple of years.

Last week John Terry said the West Ham talisman was the best player in his position in world football.

And yesterday Glenn Hoddle said Rice was the best player in the Premier League.

From the minute West Ham fans laid eyes on Rice in the first team they knew he was special.

And the same was true for his teammates it seems.

According to Rice’s West Ham teammate Aaron Cresswell – the only Hammers player to have had more touches than Rice so far this season – he knew the boy was special after an incident in a 2016 friendly against Rubin Kazan (The Daily Mail).

West Ham star says he knew Declan Rice would be a top player after incident during 2016 friendly

“I know I play with him so I’m not going to sit here and say otherwise, but he is unbelievable,” Cresswell told Jamie Redknapp for The Daily Mail.

“I remember a pre-season game, against Rubin Kazan in 2016. Slaven Bilic was manager and he brought on this 17-year-old called Declan Rice.

“I remember him giving the ball away for a goal. How did he react? From the off, he was screaming for the ball.

“I was thinking, ‘Bloody hell, he’s just given a goal away’ but he was that confident, he could let it go. He wanted the ball and to take authority of the game. For someone of that age to do that was unbelievable.”

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