As a footballer, you want to keep testing yourself and you also want to be playing at the biggest clubs possible.
This is madness – when a single footballer is more expensive than building a hospital or school, the transfer market has lost its marbles.
I remember watching a ‘Big Brother’ contestant saying that she wanted to be a footballer’s wife. I thought, ‘What is the world coming to?’
Dagenham offered me a two-year opportunity really. It wasn’t a pro deal, just a chance to impress. I was sent out on loan straight away. I got a professional contract on the back of that and it wasn’t until I started scoring in League Two that I actually realized, ‘I’m professional footballer.’
I played semi-professionally for a season, and there’s an element of performance to being a footballer, stepping onto the pitch: you feel like a gladiator walking into a colosseum.
If I have to, I’ll keep going until my career ends, but I think I’ve found a club to put down roots. A traditional club that supports its people, people who believe in it and give everything. I’d like to be part of that, a great footballer for many years for Arsenal.
I look at Messi, and he makes me laugh. A beautiful footballer who is still like a kid. A world superstar, but still a kid. Innocent, you know. He just plays.
You can’t manage every footballer the same. Of course you’d love to, but it doesn’t work like that. We’re not robots.
People watch me because I am a footballer, not because I wear a nice watch.
I do think there is a responsibility for myself as being a senior professional footballer to be able to pass on my experiences to the younger generation.
I take compliments and I take constructive criticism. Not everyone loves you. It’s the way you react as a footballer. I use it all to make me play better.
When I was a footballer, I surrounded myself with footballers. We were all friends. But in Brasilia you don’t know who your friends are. It can be a dangerous place.
The Champions League is probably the biggest goal a footballer can have.
When Carlisle released me, I felt as though the dream of being a footballer was over.
I was 19 or 20 when The Beatles were at their peak, and I was coming up to the peak of my career, too. I was also the first footballer to have long hair, and that’s how I got my nickname ‘the Fifth Beatle.’
But when you are an injured footballer, especially when you are out for as long as I was, you find out all about the dark side of the game.
When you are a footballer, you will not always play 90 minutes. Sometimes you are not happy, but this is not important for me.
As a footballer, you always want to test yourself against the best.
If you’re not an ambitious footballer, you’re in the wrong game, really.
A lot of kids, when they get to 18 or 19, they start getting flashy and forgetting about the real basics of being a professional footballer.
Of course I want to keep playing; that’s the best thing for any footballer. But I’m looking forward to not having to put my body through the pain, I have to say.
When I was younger I would play in front of crowds as small as 500 in the second division in Belgium, so I know what that’s like. It might be easier in terms of pressure, but believe me, I would always prefer to be at a packed Anfield playing against Manchester United. That’s why you want to become a footballer.
I want to be a footballer. I don’t want to do anything else.
My dad was not a footballer. He wasn’t anything remotely what the average person would say was a role model – but in my eyes he was Superman.
As a footballer, there is so much spare time.
I have many footballer friends including I M Vijayan.
I think, in every footballer’s life there are all sorts of ups and downs.
Sometimes, the fact that you’re a footballer makes you think that racism can’t happen to you because you bring that passion and you express a lot of things. When it happened to me, I couldn’t believe it, and in that moment, I decided to walk off the pitch.
It was part of my dream when I was a kid to become a footballer, is to have that pressure, to be the man who is going to be there when everything is on the line.
Dybala only lacks the belief that he is a great footballer. After his great experience at Palermo he had a great start with Juve and he did beautiful things.
I’m very privileged to be a professional footballer, and I want to encourage more young girls to play.
Sometimes when you come every day to training you can’t realise how big it is to be a footballer.
Many clubs rejected me, but I wanted to be a footballer and to learn as quickly as possible, so I persisted until I got into Real Sociedad when I was 13.
The best thing about having a footballer dad is seeing the game up close. You watch him train, then go home and practice what you’ve seen in the front room, rearranging the furniture.
An openly gay footballer would be exposed to abusive comments.
You have to have faith in your own qualities; that is part of being a footballer: being strong in your head. That is more than half of the quality you need to be a football player.
It’s hard to know when to call it a day as a footballer.
That’s the buzz you want as a footballer – to perform well in the big high-profile games.
Everyone says Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, but I would have love to have played with Luka Modric. I think he’s an incredible player, really strong mentally and a pure footballer.
I am a professional footballer, and it’s a game where the coach decides where you can be most beneficial for the team. As long as I am attacking, I am happy! I know what Jose Mourinho decides will be best for me personally and for the team.
I really loved football from a young age. And my only thought, my only objective in life, was to be a professional footballer.
I thought I was going to be a footballer or a boxer or something like that – I was into sports.
Would I swap what I have achieved as a cook if I could have been as successful as a footballer? Definitely.
In my head, I was like any young kid: ‘I’m going to be a footballer.’ But at the same time, my mum and dad were making me do my schoolwork, and that was important.
Only being able to watch is the hardest thing for any footballer.
I can see when people’s minds are wrong. You can see when a footballer’s going to miss a penalty.
When I signed that USL contract, my perspective changed on me being a professional footballer. That was my goal ever since I was young. I never thought I could achieve it, but that’s when it clicked in my head that I can really go far in the sport.
Yes, I was a footballer, but there’s more to me than meets the eye. I’ve got more levels. So many levels. I’m not going away – and I’m going to keep on talking until things start changing.
A footballer who says they don’t want to start games is in the wrong job.
I’ve always dreamt of being a footballer. You only get one shot at a career like this, and I want to be the best professional I can. Anything I can do that means I can get the best out of my ability is what I’ll try and do.
The footballer’s career is very long and staying on the top for many years is always very difficult.
I went to Japan to experience a new culture, and I would recommend that any footballer does that. But the main reason I went was to play football.
When you’re playing once and then not playing for six games, I don’t care what any footballer says, you don’t feel involved. You don’t feel part of the team.
I was brought up correctly and in the right way, and my parents are very proud of the fact that I am a professional footballer.
Celebrity culture, it’s everywhere, isn’t it? It’s reality TV, Big Brother. I didn’t become a footballer to be famous, I became a footballer to be successful. I didn’t want to be famous. Now people want to be famous. Why? Why would you want people following you about all day?
When you leave a big club and go on loan to a small club in Holland it is not easy. But I am a footballer and I have to be professional about my job.
I wasn’t really interested in girls. Only football. I was just enjoying football all the time. There was a five-a-side next to the flat, and I used to play there all the time. It was all about football. I wanted to be a professional. That was my goal. I didn’t want to be anything other than a footballer.
I feel I have been very lucky. When you are growing up, you have dreams of being a footballer, perhaps even playing for the club you support, and I am living that dream.
I like Mourinho’s sessions: very dynamic, always with the ball. There are no really long sessions or talks. He understands what a footballer needs: twenty minutes, that’s it. No time to lose concentration.
I just loved kicking a ball but I was determined to be a footballer and I wanted a professional contract, I would go to any professional club to get one. From 15, all I wanted was to be a footballer.
Luka Modric is an outstanding footballer, a great player.
You go to a lot of cities they’ve got these great big footballer’s houses. There’s not many in Stoke-on-Trent.
I remember watching a ‘Big Brother’ contestant saying that she wanted to be a footballer’s wife. I thought, ‘What is the world coming to?’
