If football had always been my main goal then I would have gone to some scholarship school; I could have gotten more exposure there.
It took me a while to realize that basketball wasn't football.
To me, having 500 rolls of fabric around is the most calming thing in the world. I think it's what football is to some guys.
Sure, there are times when the guys talk about playing football in school and I can't relate to that, but I can relate to being a female athlete. And as long as you are prepared, work hard and know your stuff, you will be fine.
Norm Smith personally came and signed me up to the Melbourne Football Club. The fact that I then played cricket for Melbourne Cricket Club - the footy club didn't like it that much.
It took a while to find a passion for another career that was as strong as the passion that I had for football. Once I found it in acting, it was simple. Use the tools you were given from playing football and apply it to your new passion. I have done that through acting, producing and writing.
I never really looked at it like that, but it's true. It's weird that it's been half my life. Because I lead these two separate lives. I've got my life and Harry Potter, where I travel the world, I make films, I meet amazing people, I do press junkets and stuff. And then I go back home to Leeds, where I live, and I've got the same friends from before. I still go to the pub. I still go to watch the football, soccer. And I go shopping at my local shop.
I love playing football. I started playing for a school team, which is fun, and I play a lot of five a side. I nowhere near good enough to go professional but it's definitely one of my main hobbies. I play three times a week.
I get too excited about football and rugby.
I played football for a huge portion of my life, all the way through college actually.
It is customary for columnists to complain about the excesses of Premiership footballers, whenever - as happens regularly - there is an incident involving some combination of sex, drugs, drink, violence and the constabulary. But modern footballers have a lot of both money and disposable time, a combination that has proved a recipe for personal disaster throughout history. And these incidents take place generally round night clubs rather than football clubs. The average Premiership player who turned up for work drunk would have a career-expectancy measurable in minutes.
There are those who condemn five in midfield as a negative tactic, but when a side's centre-backs are as hapless as Chris Perry and Hermann Hreidarsson were on Sunday, it is not nearly negative enough.
It is like football with coaches, like, 'We're only going to think about the next game.' It is really true, all you think is, 'Okay, we have to make a good next episode.'
I got injured when I was a kid, and it prevented me from becoming a footballer.
Sheffield United are attacking their own fans.
A lot of people wanted me to play college football, but I wanted to get started playing pro baseball.
England are very light up front. Eriksson's decision not to include Jermaine Defoe can be declared an error of judgment, regardless of Rooney's situation. The Swede should have forgone one of his nine midfield players; much will have to go wrong for Jermaine Jenas to get a game.
My dad was a college football coach, so we're a big athletic family. I was either going to be an athlete or an actor. As an actor, I hoped I would be able to bond the two.
I love to play games. I really like football, and I also like to ride horses.
It strikes me that whatever advantages there are to being a boy--getting to stay out late and having other people wash your clothes and bring you plates of stuff--get undercut by having to play football.
There will be many failures sprinkled among the successes you enjoy.
It is a testament to the fundamental honesty of football that Israel, with nothing to play for, overcame Russia in Tel Aviv on Saturday. The sport has its faults, but this basic trust is the reason Wembley holds 80,000 and could take more and the track and field venue for the London Olympics will be reduced after the event to the same capacity as the home of Wigan Athletic.
I'm the same as maybe six or seven people in every ten - I can't take f***ing criticism.
Robbie Keane's not the second choice, he's my first choice. But Jermain Defoe is as well.
The majority of the time I'm at home with my family, I play football three times a week.
