Exclusive:Enzo Le Fée on the Le Bris text that sparked Sunderland move & his Premier League dream for 'incredible' fans

"Hi, Enzo, how are you?"

Enzo Le Fée laughs, adamant that he didn't realise what was coming. Régis Le Bris was checking in on his former player but he also had an idea: to convince Le Fée to swap Rome and European football for the Championship.

Le Fée needed surprisingly little convincing. He had settled on the move to AS Roma last summer after a call from Daniele De Rossi, a club legend with ambitious plans to build on the encouraging progress he had made as interim boss in the previous campaign. And when one of the greatest midfielders of the modern era talks, you listen.

Despite a major recruitment drive, De Rossi was sacked after four games. Injury and a change of coach limited the opportunities for Le Fée to impress and the season would take another twist when Ivan Juric was dismissed less than two months after his arrival. Claudio Ranieri did not want to let Le Fée go but nor could he promise him regular football as tried to stabilise a campaign threatening to spiral out of control.

When Le Bris got in touch, Le Fée was ready to hear what he had to say. "I had three managers in Rome," Le Fée tells The Echo.

"And you know, when you want to change the club, this is my opinion - the most important thing is that you have to speak with the coach. So when I spoke with Daniele De Rossi, It was incredible, because he told me he liked how I played, that I can be a good eight for him in his system.

"So yeah, my choice was this. But after the pre-season, we played four games and we changed the coach. I had an injury at the same time, so it was a little bit difficult. With the new coach, it was a little bit more tactical, the space is a little bit more closed as well. When you don't play a lot, you have to find your confidence. But you have to have the coach's confidence as well. It wasn't the case in Rome. So I know if I come here, I can have the coach's confidence and I can find mine after. It wasn't a difficult choice for me.

"He [Le Bris] just asked me how I feel, because I think he saw I didn't play a lot," he adds.

"After he told me the project of Sunderland, I said I agree. If I can help Sunderland, let's go. I knew it was a big club in England. When he sent me the message, I watched the series on Netflix as well, so I can know more about the club but everyone knows about Sunderland."

The midfielder's conviction that he was making the right choice was reinforced on his journey to Wearside, his social media channels flooded with excited messages from Sunderland supporters.

"Incredible," he says. "At my first game, I could hear them singing songs for me. I loved that, every player wants this. Now, I just want to give them promotion."

In a recent interview with a newspaper in his native France, Le Bris explained why he had been so keen to reunite with Le Fée. Despite his talent and his status as one of Europe's most talented young midfielders in recent years, he accepted his new role out of position on the left wing without so much as a murmur. Team first, individual second. Le Bris said this represented perfectly his footballing philosophy.

"I've been like this since I was little," Le Fée explains. "When I was young, if I was in front of the goalkeeper and my striker was on my right or my left, I would pass to him. I don't know why. I'm like this in my life as well. If I can give something, I will do it. I don't care about me, I care about the environment around me.

"I think it's the values I was brought up with. When I was young, I lived with my whole family. Because I was only with my mum. She worked, to pay her apartment and pay something for me, for her. We lived all together in my grandmother's house. I think because of that I have this idea about football.”

While the debate rages as to where Le Fée should line up in the play-offs, it's worth remembering just how successful the experiment was in those early weeks following his arrival. As the 25-year-old explains, the switch most definitely brings challenges and limitations but there is opportunity, too.

"I've enjoyed it," he says. "When you play in the middle, you are running a lot but it is more consistent. On the wing, it is more about sprints. And that's the difference when I play left winger. I am used to running a lot in games but at the same speed and now it's different. I didn’t play much for six months and then I came into this team and I had to do a lot of sprints. So my injury, I think, was probably because of that.

"But I like it. If I can play left winger now, it's better for me because I can play in the middle, I can play left winger…. "I prefer to dribble when I have the defender at my back so I can use my skills and because I can play with my body. But in 1v1, you have to think about how I can dribble to get past, it's different. I’m learning."

That injury and the end of Sunderland's automatic promotion push slowed the progress of both player and team but as the first leg at Coventry City begins to loom large, Le Fée is fit and raring to go. Succeed, and he will be a Premier League player with Sunderland. The Premier League was not always his foremost footballing dream, but that changed from the moment he took to the pitch against Burnley.

"When I was younger the main league I used to watch and wanted to play in was La Liga," Le Fée explains.

"That was my [style of] football, and I'm a big, big fan of Barcelona. [My hero] was Iniesta. A genius. It was like he had eyes in the back of his head. But when I came here and I played, I said straight away, ‘I want to play in the Premier League.’ I used to watch Premier League games and it was nice but when you play in the Championship… you imagine what it would be like. The atmosphere in the stadium, the football as well, I like. It is more about the transitions and I’ve enjoyed this. I said, ‘I want to play in the Premier League with Sunderland’."

You begin to understand what makes Le Fée tick; why he is that rarest of players who seems to genuinely prefer the well-crafted assist to a goal.

"My [favourite player] was Iniesta," he adds. "It wasn't Messi or Neymar - Iniesta. A genius. It was like he had eyes in the back of his head. The biggest pleasure in football for me is to find the pass for my striker. When you play in Italy it's different sometimes because you can play against a blocked team and so it's difficult to find those passes. But in transition football, it can be easier.

"I think the football in France is more physical but here it is more direct. Every game the ball goes back, back but I like it."

If Sunderland are to succeed, it's hard to imagine they will do it without Le Fée at his very best. That text from Le Bris might yet prove to be one of the defining moments of their season - and indeed of Le Fée's career.

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