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Once the whistle goes, it's game on and you shut out the outside factors. If you thought about things, you wouldn't be able to do your job. For 95 minutes you have to totally concentrate and that's what we'll do.
If someone plays five good games in a row for the Bavarians, there is more talk about them being in the national team than of those who play five good games in a row for Dortmund or Wolfsburg or Bayer Leverkusen.
I remember running around the park as a kid and pretending, shouting out 'Michael Owen in the cup final. He scores!' To actually fulfil that dream when you're older and score two goals made it just a magical day.
I would like to think that if I stop playing in three, four, five years time, whatever it may be, that I would still be involved in football and still have that as my profession. It is my passion and what I know.
Football is like a religion to me. I worship the ball, and I treat it like a god. Too many players think of a football as something to kick. They should be taught to caress it and to treat it like a precious gem.
I played Futebol de Salão for many years and it helped me to become the player I am today. There you don't have time to think, you are always tightly marked and you develop a sense for performing in small spaces.
My first real writing job was at 'Rolling Stone,' so I wrote about rock-and-roll and politics and the like. At the time, I really didn't know what I wanted to write, and I did a bunch of investigative journalism.
Playing on turf affects everything, you know, it affects the way the ball rolls, it affects the way the ball bounces, it affects the way you think about whether or not going into a slide. It's kind of a nightmare.
My teammates have put me in all different kinds of positions to score goals, and I can't say it enough, and I really through and through believe it in my heart that I'm only as good as my teammates allow me to be.
I hope that everyone tries to help to increase the level of the MLS and also that American players like Pulisic are here and not in Europe. That should be the goal for America. I just try to help as much as I can.
When you are nominated for the best player in Europe, the Ballon d'Or, playing in the Champions League, there is so much pressure. You don't know what will happen. This pressure is inside you - you always have it.
Those who know Neymar know his great quality and how special he is. And I insist again, we have to take care of players like that; they illuminate football. It's players like him that make football have any sense.
Big clubs in Europe always go through difficult spells where it appears as though there is no light at the end of the tunnel. But because they are big clubs, they always come back, and they do so with a vengeance.
To the children of yesterday, who have grown up and become parents, and to the children of today, who perhaps shout 'Tottigol,' I'd like to think that, for you, my career has become a fairytale for you to pass on.
In so many ways, my soccer career taught me about seeing the value of all people, whether or not society sees it first. Relationships with people who are perceived to be 'different' have taught me the same lesson.
At first I didn't think I was going to fit into Barcelona's way of playing. There was a lot of tiki-taka and I was thinking that without a lot of space to play in, I'd find it more difficult. I worried about that.
Every tournament and every international game played gives you additional experience which brings you forward, both on the pitch and off it, but there is nothing more special than playing a World Cup on home soil.
What's mostly left after a match? The scenes in front of the goal where the attackers are the highlights of the play. But doing the spectacular is not particularly important to me. I just want to play for my team.
If I go out in the street and one guy gets a picture, then someone calls the press to say Mario was there. The day after in the press, it's, 'Mario was there'. That's normal, I just walk in town like a normal guy.
I'm confident in my own ability. If that wasn't the case you might as well pack it in now. If you think too much, you start doubting yourself, doubting your quality, so you have to train yourself in a certain way.
At times like that it's difficult to remember what's at stake, that history is in the making. As a player you feel so cut off sometimes, it can be tough... Which is why it is an enormous advantage to play at home.
For me it's more difficult to play against the quicker wingers, but for the team it's perhaps more difficult to face players that are good passers, because one through ball can take the whole team out of the game.
Four years ago maybe we thought we were inferior to Brazil, subconsciously we didn't see ourselves beating them. Now we believe in ourselves, we can be on the pitch with any team in the world and think we can win.
If any player has a bad game it's there in the back of your mind in the next game. There's always a hangover. It is like a wounded animal in a way, as you want to get out there as quick as possible and rectify it.
I am happy at Leeds and I want to stay. There has been talk that Leeds might sell some players, but all the players believe we can win some silverware next season and it is important that we are all kept together.
A child comes to see his father play, have fun, make people happy, and what does he see? He sees people booing his father for being black. They make monkey noises. They throw bananas at his teammates and all that.
I think about never letting anybody get the ball in my zone, about being tough. If the ball is taken away from me, I'm the first one to take it back. You can rise to higher levels depending on your level of pride.
I spend time with my family. I have got two daughters who are too young to know their Dad's a footballer. They just want to play with their Dad. I like to play golf, too, but apart from that, that's me, I'm afraid.
I have felt part of this club when I have travelled all around the world and been recognised as a Manchester United player. And when you're a Manchester United player you will forever be a Manchester United player.
I still have a thorn in my side at not having played for Real Madrid or Barcelona, because playing there is a dream for every player. But I consider myself very satisfied to have played for the best teams in Italy.
We used to go to the pictures every Saturday night but we had to leave a little bit early and get home and watch Match of the Day - and my wife still complains she missed the last five minutes of every film we saw.
Joy is important in life, not just football. Joy is being serious and professional, too. Joy can be reaching your potential by training hard and being disciplined. Joy can be following the rules you need to follow.
If you'd given me the choice of going out and beating four men and smashing a goal in from thirty yards against Liverpool or going to bed with Miss World, it would have been a difficult choice. Luckily, I had both.
The only problem is that there are a lot of people here in Catalonia who want to separate from Spain and a lot of people who don't want to. We are talking about 50-50, more or less, and that is why it is difficult.
I often felt as a player in a 4-4-2, you end up being outnumbered in midfield and chasing the ball, so as a manager I liked wingbacks to push forward; it gives the midfield player on the ball three or four options.
Before games, people ask whether I get nervous. To be honest, I don't get nervous, I just enjoy it. I am living the dream. When I was a kid I always wanted to play for my country and now I am here, I will enjoy it.
Obviously, it was an amazing feeling to play for Liverpool for the first time. It was a little bit funny to be playing against Sunderland, but it is still an amazing feeling every time I put on the Liverpool shirt.
My time at Real Madrid wasn't a failure. I played 120 matches, I scored 28 goals, and I played an average of 30 games a season. What's more, I won three trophies: La Liga, a Copa del Rey, and a Supercopa de Espana.
In my time at Milan, the club played with a 4-3-1-2 formation, and I was the player behind the two strikers. At Real, I play behind three. There is a greater defensive obligation, but I try to work around the area.
I'm lucky to be doing what I love, and I appreciate that I can make a good living doing it. I love to play soccer-whether it's in a game, practice or playing with friends-so it isn't like I'm under pressure at all.
Of course money takes that worry out of your life and enables you to provide for your family - but if it was playing professional football for free or choose another living, then I would choose football every time.
All dance has expression. If there is no expression, I prefer the circus. The performers do more dangerous, more difficult technical things than we do. But we are dancers. We have to express and we have to project.
Give me a great Champions League game or an exciting Premier League game ahead of an international match and I'd love that to reverse. A lot of people have lost interest in England games, it is quite hard to watch.
I think nowadays Manchester United is more competitive than it's ever been. Obviously, over the last one or two decades, they've always had one challenger or two challengers maybe, whether it be Arsenal or Chelsea.
Individually, I always want to give the most. I want to help the Brazilian National Team the best way possible, whether is with goals, assists or even a slide tackle, whatever. All that matters is to help the team.
I like to play attacking football, but I think the big difference is that we expect a lot more from our strikers, to do more pressing and to keep compact. We like to play a high line defensively and press the ball.
I didn't realise I had a speech impediment until I came back to England. I spent the whole of my life working abroad, and no-one mentioned it. I came back to England and suddenly realised I had a speech impediment.
I think I have had my story with France. Unfortunately, it's not the story I would have liked. I would have liked to have played a World Cup; I would have liked to have done a lot more for the French national team.
When I was 20 or 21, I didn't... I won't say care about anything, but you're like in your own world - you made something that you always wanted to do, and then you kind of think only about your family and yourself.
Even with my non-believing teammates, there is a great amount of unity and I truly believe that's God working. It's really cool in team sports when you're united around a belief or something you want to accomplish.