Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin is on course for his best ever season in the Premier League and the 23-year-old said proving his critics wrong has been a big motivation.
Calvert-Lewin is on 13 league goals, matching his output from the previous season, with 11 games left. He is four goals behind top-scorer Mohamed Salah of Liverpool.
"It does motivate me to prove people wrong, even to this day," Calvert-Lewin, who joined Everton in 2016 from Sheffield United, told Sky Sports.
"I think it's important you use it as a motivation and a source of inspiration to become better, ... prove to people you are who you are and you deserve to be where you are.
"No matter how good you are, or what level you get to, there's always going to be people that don't think you are very good or have their opinion to say. So for me, I take it in, and I quite enjoy it now. I feed off it more than anything."
He added that he wanted to improve his all-round ability and compete with Harry Kane for a spot in the England team.
"For me, when I don't score goals, it's about affecting games like I have been doing more often than not ... It's adding different goals to my game now," he added.
"I've shown I can be lethal in the six-yard box and get on the end of crosses and things like that but adding another string to my bow is what I'm always looking to try and do."
Everton, who are sixth in the league with 46 points, take on Burnley on Saturday.
Reuters