If a footballer goes on the pitch with the right mentality, he will perform well.

If I hadn't wanted to become a footballer, Dad wouldn't have made me do it.

When I was about 12, I realised I wasn't going to make it as a top footballer, but I won my first British ABA title at 13. From then on, I wanted to be a world champion.

I was probably the first footballer ever to have a pop-star profile, and my agent was right when he said we could put my name on stair rods and sell them to people in bungalows.

Let me tell you what it is like playing against Messi. You are up against a footballer who can take the ball either side of you, and you have no idea which side that might be from any hint about his body-shape.

The Champions League is probably the biggest goal a footballer can have.

When people hear a footballer speaking, they can think about it and maybe even reconsider the prejudices they have.

As a footballer, you want to keep testing yourself and you also want to be playing at the biggest clubs possible.

I've had injuries that have hampered my career but that is part and parcel of being a footballer. You just have to bounce back and remain focused.

It's interesting how Rod Stewart can father a child at 65, and a straight, single footballer named Cristiano Ronaldo can arrange to have a surrogate have a baby, and neither of them receives any criticism.

This is what you dream about as a footballer: playing with the best and against the best in Europe.

Andrea Pirlo is football, he is a fantastic and sensational footballer.

You want to achieve the most you can in the short period you have in your career as a professional footballer.

I want to be a footballer - and that means playing on a Saturday afternoon.

When you become a professional footballer, there's no written contract that says you have to strive to play first-team football.

If you're not an ambitious footballer, you're in the wrong game, really.

Everyone in the Premier League feels pressure to get results. It is part of being a footballer.

I've always wanted to be a top footballer since I was young.

I'm enjoying playing football, and as a footballer, that's what you want to do, and that is exactly what I've been doing.

What a footballer wants above all else is to win, regardless of who the coach is.