Jeremy Doku channelling Lionel Messi and Neymar to become best winger in the world

Jeremy Doku reckons he has what it takes to become one of the best wingers in the world .

And Doku has revealed that pouring over videos of two of the greatest ones of their generation, if not all time, has helped give him the chance to follow in their footsteps.

Doku grew up watching footage of Lionel Messi and Neymar in their prime. And now he finds himself on the greatest stages himself, the Belgium superstar wants to be mentioned in the same breath. He will get the opportunity to remind the world what he's capable of on Saturday, when Manchester City take on Southampton at Wembley for a place in the FA Cup semi final.

And Doku believes if can score more goals, he can reach the next level. He said: "I liked to watch Neymar. I like to watch, obviously Messi was a winger before.

"I just watched them. I like to watch them. And then I just created my own thing. I just admire them. But I can't do what they do - and they don't do what I do. I just try to do my own thing with what my qualities are.

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"I believe, yeah, if I have (more) goals, I can be one of the best. A winger needs to score. If I have those goals then I believe that I can get there for sure. 100 per cent.

"If I have goals, we are talking about a different conversation. You should ask defenders what they think. What do they think?

"But I'm sure that they would say that, obviously if I score goals, this is a different conversation that we have."

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Doku walked into a dressing room full of Treble winners back in 2023, when he joined City from Rennes in a £55m deal. But instead of feeling daunted, Doku admits it made him more determined to prove he deserved to be there.

He said: "Yeah, it's not easy because you come from Rennes. I'm sure they didn't watch a lot of my games in France!

"So maybe they didn't know me. So you have to prove, you have to also show that you deserve to be here.

"Nothing will be given to you. You have to take it. And that was also my mentality. So I wanted just to show my capabilities. What I'm able to do - and that's what I tried to do. "Coming into the dressing room, you have to also acknowledge that you play with top quality players.

"So you also have to raise your standards. Improve your quality up."

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Doku has won four trophies since joining City, but the FA Cup has continued to elude him. But he admits the hunger to keep landing silverware in the City squad remains insatiable - because they want to be remembered as one of the best teams of all time.

City are still on course to claim a domestic Treble this season, and Doku added: "I think when City buy players, they know which mentality, which characteristics the players have.

"And also we have a coach that's very passionate. He pushes us every time. We have experienced players that won a lot, who are still hungry.

"We have young players that come in this club and know that this club is used to winning trophies. So we're all driven by that."