Johnson already has England caps, an FA Cup winner’s medal and a Premier League trophy to cherish from his time as a City player, but he says a win for Sunderland will give him something far more precious.
Should he help Sunderland beat his former club and lift their first major trophy since the FA Cup in 1973, he will be guaranteed a place in history.
Adam Johnson: “Winning this cup final with Sunderland would match anything I achieved at Man City.
“City are going to win a lot of things.
"It was great to be part of the first team that won the FA Cup there for 40 years, but if you win a cup here, you’ll go down in history.
"It would complete the hat-trick of domestic competitions for me as well, which would be nice.
“We have come so far as a team, we were so low a few months ago, so to get to a final and have a chance of winning this club’s first trophy since 1973, is incredible.
“Everywhere you go at Sunderland, there are reminders of the 1973 Cup final team.
"There are pictures up at the training ground and this club has a proud history. We want to write our own chapter. We want to have our pictures up on the walls in colour alongside the black-and-white ones.
“The gaffer has never said the cups are a distraction, far from it.
“He wanted to develop a winning mentality and he approached the cup games in precisely the same way as the league games.
"It has worked really well. Winning games is winning games. We’ve not felt tired, that hasn’t come into it.
"It’s not been a distraction, it has spurred us on in the league. People have said in the past we went down because the cup, but that’s just an excuse.”
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