West Ham United starlet Sam Caiger has revealed that Germany and Bayern Munich legend Philipp Lahm has been an idol for him, not only because of the similarities in playing style, but also because of their identical physical traits.
The 18-year-old is considered to be a bright young prospects at the West Ham academy and is a regular for the Under-18s, having also played at Under-23 level.
The West Ham talent insists that being a full-back by nature, he admires Lahm, who was a leader and was exceptionally good on one-on-one situations.
"As I’m a full-back now, I’d probably say that my idol is Phillipp Lahm", Caiger told his club's official site.
"Obviously, I’m not the tallest and nor is he. He’s probably one of the greatest defenders that we’ve ever seen, he’s a leader, and he's captained Bayern Munich and Germany for I don’t know how many years.
"I watch clips of his one vs one defending and even though they say that players who go to ground aren’t the best, he wins every slide tackle and that can only be a good thing."
Caiger also took time to point to West Ham first-team player Jack Wilshere and his display against Barcelona as an Arsenal player in 2011 as the best individual performance he has seen. According to the academy player, a performance like that from a youngster is unusual.
"One individual performance that sticks out to me would be Jack Wilshere when Arsenal played Barcelona back in 2011.
"He was only young, and he ran the game in the middle.
"It’s rare to see a performance like that from a player who's so young."
Caiger managed eight Under-18 Premier League appearances this season in addition to six for the Under-23s, before the campaign was brought to an early end.
