Leroy Sane says his friendship with Arsenal star Mesut Ozil helped transform sluggish start to life at Manchester City
But all emotions will be thrown out of the window when Arsenal host Manchester City in the FA Cup at Wembley
LEROY SANE went on holiday with Mesut Ozil — but he is ready to end his pal’s FA Cup journey.
The Manchester City winger, 21, says his friendship with Ozil has played a big part in his sizzling form after a sluggish start to life in the Premier League.
They went to Los Angeles together after playing for Germany at Euro 2016 — and Arsenal star Ozil, 28, has been on the end of a phone to help Sane settle in since his £37million switch from Schalke in August.
And Sane thanked him by netting his first City goal . . . in a 2-1 win against the Gunners!
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Sane said of his pal: “He is older than me but sometimes he is also like a kid.
“We went together to LA last summer after the European Championships.
“We enjoyed the good weather, did the tourist attractions, Sunset Boulevard, and tried not to speak about football.
“It's good to have some older friends, they have a lot more experience than us young ones. Mesut has helped me a lot.
“We talk about my career, also about how my season is going, how I am playing.
“I meet him in London as friends sometimes every couple of weeks. We call each other regularly, too.”
The pair were at Schalke together though Sane was only 12 at the time, while Ozil was in the first team.
But they bonded playing for the national side and Ozil told his pal to call him up for advice when he failed to make an early impression in England.
Sane’s season had lift-off back in December, with that first Prem goal against the Gunners.
Since then, the German has struck eight more times for Pep Guardiola’s team at a rate of one every other game.
Guardiola described it as the moment Sane was ‘unlocked’ after his big-money switch.
Sane said: “It was a good week in training, then I scored my first goal.
“That was like the time to say ‘yes’, now it is time to carry on.
“The coach told me the same — to play free and with confidence.
“I was young and maybe when I played against bigger clubs at the beginning here I was thinking ‘OK they are better than me’ and it was like maybe I was a bit scared also.
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“I was with a new team in a new country and you don't know anything about the league, which is completely different to the Bundesliga.
“But then at the end Pep told me, ‘Play how you played at Schalke because you were free there’.”
Sane says Guardiola has also changed him by explaining how Argentine superstar Lionel Messi trained at Barcelona.
He said: “Messi and Ronaldinho were the two players who were my idols when I was young because they played free, played with a lot of happiness and tried to score in every game and tried to be the best player.
“For me, it’s also good because the manager is able to help me with things because he knows how Messi plays, how he trains, what he did in training sessions and the games.
“He saw him every day and that’s why he tries to help me, to give me the confidence to say 'yes, try this — try maybe to do it like this, like Messi does or Neymar’. He helps me a lot like this.”
With his confidence growing, Sane says he has no fear now, after struggling at the start of the campaign.
And that could be bad news for Arsene Wenger’s troops as the German targets a first FA Cup final.
Sane is almost an automatic choice for Guardiola in today’s semi-final at Wembley, a ground he has never visited before.
He said: “Vincent Kompany and Raheem Sterling have told me it’s good because the fans are split into two, so if you score a goal at the end where your fans are it is amazing.”
His family will be in the stands this afternoon as Leroy aims to go one step closer to adding to the Sane trophy haul.
Sane’s dad Souleymane won the golden boot in Austria during his playing days and his mother is former gymnast Regina Weber, who landed an Olympic bronze in 1984.
His brother Kim is a pro in Germany, while 13-year-old Sidi is at Schalke.
Sane insisted: “It is like a normal family.
“For sure my parents knew what I had to eat, how to prepare training sessions and what behaviour was needed.
“But they weren’t pushy, like you had to be a certain way.
“It wasn’t like I couldn’t eat certain things. Sometimes I went to McDonald’s!”