Rice on trophy ambitions amid transfer talk and reveals how having dad as agent helps (2024)

Declan Rice has made his ambitions of reaching the top of football very clear as he declared: 'I want to win it all.'

The West Ham star, who's been linked with a move to a number of top Premier League clubs, insists he doesn't want to look back on his career without silverware.

However, he's not letting his head get turned by all the speculation surrounding his future at the club.

"I have always said it, I don't want to have a career where I've not won anything," Rice told Gary Neville on the Overlap podcast.

"Growing up as a kid I've seen all these top players win the trophies, win the Premier League, the Champions League.

"Me as a football fan and a player I want to win the best stuff, I want to win the Premier League, I want to lift that trophy, I want to win the Champions League, I want to win the FA Cups, League Cups, even with England, I want to win it all.

"If you haven't got that ambition as a footballer, why are you playing? They are the best moments of your life winning those trophies.

"I have thought about it before, what would those days be like lifting that trophy? The day of it, the night out after. I definitely want to have those experiences of winning trophies and being the best I can be."

"You constantly read stuff about myself, (Jarrod) Bowen, (Manuel) Lanzini," Rice continued.

"If you're performing well and there are top clubs around there are always going to be people circling. But I never actually read too much into it or believe it until something happens.

"For me it is just noise and I have got to stay focused on what I have got to do at West Ham, which is perform week in, week out and be the best player because that's what I want to be."

Whoever's interested in signing the midfielder will have to get on the blower to his old man, who along with his brother, represents Rice.

Having previously being represented by people outside the family, Rice shed fascinating insight into how agents operate and how sadly, some young footballers can have the wool pulled over their eyes.

"I was 17 when I first had an agent," Rice added. "As I've got older I've understood them a lot more. They all make promises and say the same things.

"I see it now when they're with younger lads and am kind of happy that I'm out of all that. Young lads can get sucked into being told something that won't end up what they're being told.

"I wasn't like that, my dad's really strong. My brothers are switched on and have my best interests at heart. My dad would never, ever let me get mugged off like that.

"I had an agent at 17, left him two years later. I was with another and honestly unbelievable, I haven't a bad word to say against any of them.

"It's just I felt the time was right, I felt I was in a position where my family could look after me and I feel like that's the best decision for me.

"We decided that as a family, we're such a close-knit group. With things like dealing with contracts, commercial stuff, I feel like it's kept in the family, you know where it's all going to go, you can have honest conversations with each other. I feel like it was the easiest thing for me to do."

"Sometimes with agents you don't get to hear the full story. They maybe tell you one thing and you hear another thing. The family was the right thing to do.

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"We seek advice from lawyers but my dad is really switched on. He ran his own business for 25 years and dealt with stuff like this all the time although football contracts are completely different.

"But in terms of standing his ground and knowing my worth, he knows what's best for me."