Yannick Bolasie

It's crazy because I did say to myself at the age of 16 that I want to be in the Premier League at 24. When I got to the Premier League at 24 with Palace, there were tears in my eyes.

I've played as a winger all of my professional life and I'm looking forward to doing that now in front of the Everton fans.

Taking on defenders is what gives me a buzz.

I've always just wanted to play football.

I was pretty comfortable at Crystal Palace and I could have easily stayed but I wanted to challenge myself, to test myself. I wanted to do that at Everton.

When I am out on the pitch, I think you have got to play every game like it is your last.

I go to play for Congo now and it's a reality check. You see how it is for some people and you don't take things for granted. A lot of the people in Congo, to get the opportunity that I have had, I don't know what they'd do.

I want to show the Everton fans what I'm really about.

Darren Campbell has helped me out a lot with my sprinting mechanics. These are things I've always wanted to do, but neglected as I am already fast and strong.

Palace offered me the opportunity to come and play and I took it with both hands.

I've seen other people grow up and not have respect for human beings. But even though I play football, I'm still able to talk to everyone on the estate. Whenever I go, I can literally talk to anyone that I meet and everyone I have known from my past.

The way I've grown up, the manner I am today, reflects on my mother.

From my estate, where my mum still lives now, from my bedroom you could see Wembley. I go back a lot, my brothers are still there and she does a lot of cooking for me. To try to get a coach doesn't make sense, Willesden to Wembley. You can't do that really.

I'm not going to try to live like Eden Hazard, for example. That's a totally different lifestyle. He's gonna have a bigger house, a bigger this... You can get attracted too much to that side. And then you forget what you do best. Football.

I started realising I'm bigger and stronger than a lot of the full-backs. I was expecting everyone in the Prem to be so strong.

Obviously, no-one's going to watch Belgian football. Nobody is going to watch Portuguese football. But I've played with some players who right now are killing it in the Premier League.

When I left Bristol City for Palace, I just wanted to be playing football. I didn't care about the money I was getting or anything. I just wanted to play because I've always been like that, that's just my character.

There are a lot of distractions in London, which is the downside to things, for a lot of young footballers as well, and my aim is to beat that. I don't want to get distracted by anything, my aim is to concentrate on football and do the best I can.

In Willesden I was surrounded by quite a few footballers, but a lot of them have fallen off, and that's not something I wanted to do.

My dad - Gaby Yala - played for the Congo national team as well, at Under-21 level. When I see him playing, even today, I could see he's got something about him.

The first priority would have been England, but you have to look at the circumstances, England have got a lot of good, young talent coming through so I thought I'd go and play for my mum and dad's country.

My aim was always to come back and prove myself because that is the type of character I am. Whether I get the chance is another thing, but I always want to prove myself.

I believe I can bring a lot because I am totally different to a lot of people in the Premier League. That is the way I have seen it and I will continue to keep plugging away and working hard.

Ian Holloway played wingers higher up and then wanted us to come back and receive the ball; Dougie Freedman didn't want us to come back too much because he wanted us to attack; Tony Pulis made the team sit back so it was literally you against the full-back.

I want to score goals. Everyone says that's the only part of my game that's missing. Before I was a pro I used to score goals for fun. I want to bring that back into my game.