Athlete

Thank you to all of the fans and everybody connected with Norwich City, West Ham United, Queens Park Rangers, Leeds United, Huddersfield Town, and Chelsea.

Thank you to all of the fans and everybody connected with Norwich City, West Ham United, Queens Park Rangers, Leeds United, Huddersfield Town, and Chelsea.

You take records with a pinch of salt. Take Usain Bolt: someone will be quicker than him one day. These things aren't important.

In international football, chances don't come along very often.

Kevin Hitchcock, the goalkeeping coach at QPR, is an old mate, and I came to work for him on the understanding that I was first choice. If he'd said to me, 'We're also going to sign someone who's won Serie A five times and the Champions League and is one of the biggest names in South American football,' I would have thought twice before signing.

I don't know; the gravity of playing football - you can't lose the comparison of other stuff. If you do, and football is the only thing, it becomes too serious.

When I first started playing at Norwich, West Brom were in the Championship, got promoted, got relegated, got promoted, got relegated, and all the time, they were building until they eventually stayed up.

I've loved every moment and feel privileged to have enjoyed the career I have.

This is the difficulty with not picking up points away from home: the home games become that much more critical.

You want to be paid. It is your job. It is like anyone else turning up at an office.

I want to play every game.

If you go to Spain and ask, 'Who has the best goalkeepers?' they will say, 'The Spanish.' If you go to Germany, they will say German goalkeepers, and Italy the same. You go to England and they say, 'God knows!'

That's football. It's like in any walk of life: you get some people who are going to try more than others.

Not playing is frustrating; you want to play in every game. But it's the life of a keeper. You'd rather be on the pitch than off.

I didn't go into football to earn money. It was because I liked playing football.

People make mistakes in life, and you get on with it.

I want to walk away from football when I retire and say, 'I gave that everything,' and then I will do something else and give that everything, because that's me. That's the way I am, and I will do that.

Thank you to all of the managers, coaches, and staff I've worked with and thank you to all of the team-mates that I've shared a dressing room with over the years.

You look at the guys playing in the Premier League, and they've got such quality.

I can confidently say that if there is any criticism levelled at me, then I have done that already. It's what happens when you try to be honest and hard-working.