"I was still trying to find my way in football but it opened the door elsewhere."īrereton's transformation in the last 18 months has been sensational, utilising the months of lockdown in 2020 to improve his shape and mould his craft. "I was young and they didn't offer me anything so I took a couple of months off football and then I went to Forest. "I was there for about a year or so, just before scholars," recalled Brereton. Does Brereton have any regrets about his Stoke release? He felt it was all part of the learning curve. That precise moment initiated the journey to where we are now. From there Brereton made his Forest debut against Leeds United, Brazil handing him the opportunity following his appointment as caretaker manager after Philippe Montanier was relieved of his duties at the City Ground. He was released at the age of 16, which led to him sign for Nottingham Forest where academy manager Gary Brazil had taken a shine to Brereton's attributes. It should be fun!"īrereton was on the books at Stoke City as a teenager, spending the best part of a year with the club while the Potters were in the Premier League under Tony Pulis. Friends in the home end, my family in the away end. "Yet I'm still hoping we can go there and get a good result.
I used to love Fuller, Mamady Sidibe and players like that, they were good times. "I used to go in the days of Rory Delap and Ricardo Fuller.
I was born in Stoke, supported Stoke all of my life and so I'm excited to go back there and play in the ground where I always used to watch them play," beamed Brereton. He is the star of Chile's World Cup qualification bid, the talisman in Tony Mowbray's side and Brereton is eager to return to his homeplace and exhibit his prolific talent in front of those who care most - regardless of whether it's irritated his friends come the final whistle. The 22-year-old is now one of the Championship's hottest prospects, has six league goals in his last five games and has chalked up a phenomenal 16 goals from 19 matches, a tally only bettered by Fulham's Aleksandar Mitrovic. Saturday will mark the first time Brereton has played at the Bet365 since a brief six-minute cameo during Rovers' 3-2 triumph in September 2018 - an awful lot has changed since then. The Blackburn Rovers forward was a season-ticket holder at Stoke with his father, Martin, during his childhood and Brereton grew up with friends who were all Stoke supporters. Growing up just a 10-minute drive from the Bet365 Stadium - previously known as the Brittania, for those seeking Premier League nostalgia - Ben Brereton Diaz has close ties to Stoke City.