As the second-youngest of eight children, fighting for his voice to be heard and his belly filled around a crowded but happy dinner table as he grew up, Abdoulaye Doucoure knows all about picking the right moment.

For him, and for Watford, he believes that moment is now as they head towards Saturday’s FA Cup final against Manchester City at Wembley, for what he describes as the biggest game of his life.

And Doucoure is a believer. It is a word he uses. “We are believers and now is the time to believe,” he says, as he cites Watford’s remarkable comeback in the semi-final against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

At 2-0 down, with only 11 minutes to go, it appeared to be all over before Watford forced extra time with a wonder goal by substitute Gerard Deulofeu and a nerveless, 94th-minute penalty by Troy Deeney. Deulofeu scored again in extra time to win it.

“A lot of my friends admitted to me that, ‘yeah, we switched off the TV when you were two down’,” Doucoure says. “They didn’t think we were coming back but I believed. And now we face Manchester City who have some of the best players in the world, who are one of the best teams in the world and who want to make history. But we want to make our history.”

Abdoulaye Doucoure's performances have attracted the attention of bigger clubs credit: getty images

City are aiming for an unprecedented domestic treble – adding the FA Cup to the Premier League title and the League Cup. Watford simply want to win their first trophy since the club was formed in 1898. “It will be magical if we win,” Doucoure says. “It would be my first trophy, the first trophy for a lot of our players and for the club and, let’s be honest, I think a lot of people want us to win because we are the underdog and it is boring to see the same teams win all the time! So it will be a big battle, we are going to give everything, not give up, to stop them and to win.”

The key territory, as ever, will be the midfield where Doucoure has forged an impressive partnership with fellow Frenchman Etienne Capoue. Doucoure was Watford’s player of the year last season, his first full campaign in the team, with Capoue succeeding him this year.

“It shows we are doing things right at the heart of the team,” Doucoure says, before reeling off the names of those he could come up against. “David Silva, Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Gundogan,” he says. “Top, top quality players in the world. They are so good. Against that we are maybe a ‘small’ opponent but it means that a lot of people will be behind us. It’s a final, it’s one game, so, yes, let’s do it.”

Abdoulaye Doucoure is popular with the Watford supporters credit: reuters

Doucoure’s own reputation is growing. Both he and Watford are aware that clubs are coveting him and a significant bid would not be a surprise this summer for the 26 year-old who joined from Rennes on the final day of the January transfer window in 2016. If Doucoure does go he will be sold for considerably more than the £8 million he cost. Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain have been among the clubs monitoring him.

“I am very relaxed about my future,” Doucoure says. “A lot of people talk about clubs but if something happens the club will know and will inform me. If one club wants to buy me we will have to sit together to take the decision. But I am happy here. If I move I will be happy to move and if I stay I will be happy to stay.

“A lot of players here (at Watford) were not famous before they came here but after that, after this season and after last year people know me now and it’s because of Watford. I am so grateful for that. They are very smart, do smart business also and have bought players and sold them for more money – like Richarlison, for example.”

Richarlison earned a big-money move to Everton from Watford credit: afp

The Brazilian forward was bought for £11m and left, a year later, for £40m and – if it comes to it – Watford will seek at least that for Doucoure who has impressed with his technical ability as well as his athleticism.

That running power comes from being a cross-country champion at school but Doucoure says there is so much more to his game than that and wants to help re-define the stereotype about black midfielders who are so often described as powerful, physical or quick.

“I am a footballer, first,” Doucoure says of his “battle” to work against such perceptions. “When I play, I play with my feet and with my head also. Sometimes black players are viewed differently – people say ‘he’s a runner, he’s powerful, he’s strong’ but I am one of the best midfielders in the league and I have good technique. Not only me but Etienne as well, Paul Pogba (Doucoure’s friend), a lot of players.”

It is clear that Doucoure is single-minded. He has, more than once, overcome adversity and there are two stories that highlight that: how he recovered from two cruciate ligament tears to the same knee and how he brushed aside missing a loan move back to France, when he could not get in the Watford team, by just 33 seconds because the paperwork was late arriving at Fifa.

Abdoulaye Doucoure came within 33 seconds of leaving Watford credit: getty images

“There were just two years between them,” he says of the potentially career-ending injuries to his left knee, the first of which was in 2011. “Some people would never recover from that, some people would come back and not be the same or have less quality, but me, I was the complete opposite. I came back stronger. It’s my mentality. I am a strong man, I am always looking forward and this is my main thing.”

And the aborted move? Doucoure was not playing under then head coach Walter Mazzarri and wondered why Watford bought him. On the final day of the 2016 summer transfer window, he waited at Luton airport for a loan deal to be finalised. “The plane was ready to fly to Lorient but it did not happen and, now, I am happy with that because I didn’t really want to leave Watford, I didn’t want to leave the Premier League,” Doucoure says.

“When my agent called me he said, ‘you have to come back, you have to stay six months longer because the paperwork had not passed through’. But I was happy because of what happened next. I stayed and I fought.”

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Still, Doucoure had to wait until New Year’s Day 2017, his 24th birthday, for his first Premier League start but has not looked back since, especially under Javi Gracia. “First of all, he’s a good human being,” Doucoure says. “He respects everyone, he’s honest but he’s also smart. The success we’ve had – and we should have finished in the top 10 (Watford ended up 11th) – is because of him.

“Me? The main quality I have is my mentality because I never gave up - I never, ever give up. I have been like that since I was young. I knew I had to take my chance when it came. Nobody gives you anything. You have to go and take it and this was the way I think.”

Doucoure’s mind wanders back to that dinner table when he was growing up with his brothers and sisters, the children of Malian parents (he sends food parcels back home to Africa) in the neighbourhood of Meulen-en-Yvelines, to the north-west of Paris. “There was a lot of noise at home,” Doucoure says. “There were so many of us. When you wanted to play a game or have something to eat, you had to wait your turn but also be ready to take it. So against Man City we also have to be patient. And we also have to take our moment.

“This FA Cup final is something amazing. It means a lot – at Wembley, the supporters, the achievement. But we will give everything. Everywhere you look, everyone is so excited. And I want to win this.”