Lampard has revealed the encouragement of his father and the love of his late mother to be the key to his success

He believes the first Jose Mourinho era at Stamford Bridge to be the happiest time of his career

A new adventure awaits him in the MLS with New York City FC

Frank Lampard is sitting in a corner of a quiet Manchester bar, not far from his city centre apartment. It is mid-afternoon. He had stayed late after training at Manchester City to record an interview for an approaching documentary about Bobby Moore as a favour to his father, Frank senior.

Lampard will slip into sepia soon, too. He sips a coffee as he contemplates the farewell that is drawing near. Goodbye to all that. Goodbye to a career gracing English football, gliding and ghosting through it as one of the greatest goalscoring midfielders we have seen. City play at Swansea on Sunday and at home to Southampton next weekend, then he will be gone.

He is comfortable about the end of it all, he says. No regrets. He worked hard his whole career. He got the most from his talent. He didn't squander it.

Manchester City midfielder Frank Lampard leads the line in training ahead of the game with Swansea

Lampard practises his set-pieces during a Manchester City training session ahead of Sunday's game

The former England midfielder is set to join New York City FC after the season in England comes to an end

'I'd have hated to have left anything on the table,' he says. 'I have seen it with young boys who had everything at their feet and let it go.'

He says the uncompromising encouragement of his father, a West Ham legend, the love of his mother and a solid education meant that was never going to happen to him. He names a player who failed to fulfill his potential and remains tortured by what he lost.

'I would have dwelt on that, too, if it had happened to me,' he says. 'I'm sure they look back.'

He says simply: 'I'm proud that I gave everything. I'd like to think that I had talent. Sometimes I get accused of being more about hard work than talent. I take that as a huge compliment. I had the desire and determination to make the best of my career.'

Lampard, 37, has been a constant in the English game for almost as long as many of us can remember, winning everything there was to win at club level with Chelsea and with the kind of style and class that made him a favourite with many who felt no allegiance to the club he represented. It was always obvious he loved and respected the game. People liked that about him.

He was twinned with Steven Gerrard as the dominant English midfield forces of their generation and they are conjoined even now as they take their leave of the Premier League and head for a new world in America, Gerrard to LA Galaxy, Lampard to New York City FC.

Gerrard's farewell tour hit fever pitch last week, culminating in the emotional outpouring of his final game at Anfield. Lampard's own departure, its tone altered by the fact that Chelsea released him last season and he spent a final year at the top with City, is set to be more low-key. Maybe that suits their on-pitch personas. Gerrard has always been defined by exuberance. Lampard has a certain reserve.

'I'm a bit of a loner,' he says. 'I like my own space. I'm not the sort of fella who in a few years' time will miss the dressing-room banter. That's not me.'

Lampard (right) poses with Steven Gerrard (left) as they collect their PFA Merit awards earlier this month

Lampard has a shot at goal during a Premier League match against QPR at Stamford Bridge

Lampard has agreed to join newly formed MLS outfit New York City FC at the end of the season

Lampard looks back as well. But not in anger or bitterness. Mainly with gratitude. In his darkest hour, when his mother, Pat, died suddenly in April 2008 at 58 after a bout of pneumonia, he desperately sought some form of sanctuary in football and the English game came to his aid.

It is still painful for him to talk about, seven years on, but his mother's death was, in many ways, the defining moment of his life. He thinks about the change that came over him after she died, the difference between the way he was before and the way he was after. One of the things Lampard remembers best is the way he reached out for the game he loved.

'Less than a week after Mum died,' he says, 'Chelsea had the second leg of a Champions League semi-final against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge. The night before the game, Avram Grant, our manager, came to my room and said he didn't want to select me. I begged him to let me play. Steve Clarke, one of Avram's assistants, spoke to him and pushed for me and I played and scored a penalty in extra-time in our victory.

Lampard watches Chelsea play from the stands with his mother Pat (middle row, centre) at Stamford Bridge

Lampard signals up to the heavens after scoring against Liverpool in the 2008 Champions League semi-final

Lampard, pictured here aged 9, poses in his school uniform ahead of a phenomenal football career

'Football was such a big part of my life that it was a thing I could cling to in the aftermath of Mum's death. Football was all I knew to take my mind off it. It was what I did. I was a footballer. To take that away was something I didn't want to handle.

'I wanted to show myself I could be strong, I think. I played that game in a bit of a zombie state. I don't remember much about the game. I remember the penalty. Maybe I shouldn't have taken it, but I felt like I had to.

'Losing Mum was pivotal in my life and my mindset. I have always been a thinker and a worrier about certain things and that changed my worries. It put a lot of the things I worried about into perspective. It did give me a bit of a fear because what happened was very sudden and it affects anyone who has that sort of thing in their life. I live my life now with a slight fear of sudden bad news. It's a horrible thing.

'I am a bit more ruthless than I was before Mum died. Maybe it just made me decide to be a man and make decisions. I was trying to please everyone at a younger age and when Mum died, I started to think 'I'm going to start doing the things that are really important to me'. I grew more determined to make the right call.

'In terms of football, I was right in the middle of my career. I was 29. It made me put things before that in one box and things after that in a different box. My life changed a lot.'

Lampard holds off the challenge of Cesc Fabregas (left) during the 2012 Champions League semi-final

Lampard feels that the crowning moment of his career was winning the Champions League with Chelsea

Placed in the box dedicated to the period before his mother died is the carefree period of Lampard's career.

He says winning the Champions League with Chelsea in 2012 was his best moment in the game. The happiest time, though, was being part of the brave new world that swept over Chelsea and English football when Jose Mourinho took over in 2004.

It was intoxicating being involved with Chelsea then, a freewheeling run at greatness. After the Roman Abramovich takeover and the arrival of Mourinho, it soon became clear Chelsea were about to change the face of English football and Lampard, together with John Terry, Petr Cech and Didier Drogba, made up the spine of the team that did it.

LAMPARD'S TROPHY CABINET: With West Ham (1995-2001) Intertoto Cup 1999 With Chelsea (2001-2014) Premier League, 2005, 2006, 2010 FA Cup, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012 League Cup, 2005, 2007 Community Shield, 2005, 2009 Champions League, 2012 Football Writers Player of the Year 2005 Advertisement

'The first Mourinho era was my happiest time in the game,' Lampard says. 'It was a two or three-year period of success. We were all young, it was new to us, we felt a bit invincible, like winners do.

'I had never touched that. I'd just seen other teams do that. I had seen Roy Keane lift the League trophy most years and all of a sudden I was an integral part of a really good team.

'We were changing the face of English football via the personality of Mourinho himself. The biggest thing Jose brought me, more than anything tactical, was self-confidence. His own self-confidence rubbed off on me. The way we played, we had determination and flair and I loved it. It was a period of my life when I didn't even have to think about playing.

'I trained and played. It wasn't a problem for me to play every week. As a team we felt we'd win every week. We were flying, I was at a great club, living in London and happy with my football. It was all that I ever wanted.'

Mourinho came and went but Lampard stayed and stayed. He thought about leaving after his mother died because London was suddenly full of painful memories and heartbreaking associations but he decided that would be the wrong reason to shift clubs.

'I always thought I'd like to play in Italy or Spain,' he says. 'The way things worked out, I'm glad it never happened.'

Lampard scores Chelsea's opening goal during a Premier League match against Liverpool at Anfield

Lampard says he was happiest while playing during Jose Mourinho's (right) first spell in charge of Chelsea

Lampard prepares to unleash a shot at goal during the Premier League match against Norwich City in 2004

The way things worked out? Well, he won three League titles and four FA Cups and in 2012, after Chelsea somehow beat Pep Guardiola's magnificent Barcelona side in the semi-finals, Lampard captained them to victory in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich in front of their own fans in the Allianz Arena.

'That's the best memory of my career,' he says. 'It beats all the others by a fair distance. It was a culmination of years of trying and failing. Failing for different reasons: referees, bad performances, whatever. It had got to the point where I thought we wouldn't do it. I was getting old. I was 33.'

He regrets the fact he never got to say goodbye in the way Gerrard said goodbye.

'I left slightly out of the back door at the end of last season,' he says. 'I'd have preferred to go out the front door. It would have been a nice moment. It's probably a selfish thing. I wanted to do it at the end of my last game but that's not how football works. You can't pick and choose everything to be perfect.'

Lampard singles out Barcelona forward Lionel Messi as the best player he's ever lined up against

There was a confused genesis to his joining of City and he was keen not to do anything to hurt Chelsea fans.

'I had a good few days stewing over it when the opportunity came up,' he says. 'I wondered if it would change my thing at Chelsea. I didn't see that it would and I hope it hasn't. It certainly hasn't changed how I think about them as a club. I had 13 years there and tried my bloody hardest.'

Lampard took the chance, essentially, because that instinct never to stop trying to eke everything he could out of his career took over.

'I asked my dad about it,' Lampard says. 'He said 'it's a no-brainer, son'.'

Lampard talks to his father Frank Sr (left) before Chelsea's FA Cup match against QPR at Loftus Road

Lampard does not celebrate after scoring against Chelsea for Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium

And so Lampard played against Chelsea this season and, inevitably, scored. He did not celebrate. He laughed at the idea he ever could. And then he watched as Mourinho led old mates like Terry and Drogba to another title.

Now, the last act awaits. Lampard has an 18-month contract in New York that may be extended if things go well. He is arriving later than their fans had hoped but they need not worry about his commitment when he arrives. No one ever needs to worry about that.

He plans to live in Manhattan, on the Upper West Side. He cannot wait to get started. He says he is going to do everything he can to make it work.

He will train hard, try to be an influence in the dressing room, a senior figure younger players can come to for advice.

'I've heard a few stories about players who went over there and didn't really buy into the MLS thing because they felt it was the end of their career,' Lampard says. 'That won't be me.'

Lampard is still held in high regard by Chelsea fans and is the club's record goalscorer in all competitions