Crowds of questions stream through me like lines of people exiting a soccer ground or a concert. They push and shove and trip. Some make their way around. Some remain in their seats, waiting for their opportunity.
Playing college soccer was going to be the top of my athletic feats. I wasn't going to the Olympics. I was a decent player, but it's because of hard work, not because I was Freddy Adu. I wouldn't have a medal from the Olympics if I wasn't in a chair. I wouldn't have gone to the Olympics and experienced the whole atmosphere.
Faith-healing is peculiar enough at the best of times, but applying it to football merits a special league of barking. Why would God bother to perform a miracle that enabled Sol Campbell to yell Oh holy Jesus, now I can win the ball in the air. It's been five years since I could defend from corners, brothers and sisters, it's a miracle.
Trying to coach kindergarteners in soccer is like trying to herd cats.
If you get operated, something can go wrong and you can just say bye-bye to tennis. That's what happened to a lot of soccer players in Europe. They get operated, some things, it's not the mistake of the doctor. It's just some surgeries, they just don't go the right way...My injury will never go away. It's already become so chronic there's no chance to fix it so I can play without pain.
I've lived my life the way I wanted to, whether scaling the mountains, partying long into the night or having fun playing soccer.
The three things that kept me sane as a child were bikes, books, and soccer
At the weekends I usually have around 50 kids running around in my back garden. They are all friends of my kids. I know all their names. We have barbecues, put up tents, and play soccer. I love it.
But as we went on, and you keep practicing and rehearsing more and more fight scenes, it clicks and you just get it. It's almost like a soccer game. If you take enough shots on target, one of them is going to go in. As soon as it does, something happens and it just registers. I found it a lot easier after that, which was about three-quarters of the way through the shoot.
Jesus Christ said turn the other cheek. Unfortunately Luis Figo is not Jesus Christ.
I am the happiest man alive and I am happy for myself, for my family and for my country.
The focus of our family life was homework and what was for dinner; getting to ballet rehearsal and getting my brother to soccer.
Think: who has vans, huh? Soccer moms and serial killers.
Your name is Sanchez, what are you doing playing for Northern Ireland?
I've written in every imaginable location; a repurposed closet, the kitchen table, the bleachers while my kids had basketball practice, the front seat of the car when they were at soccer. In airports. On trains. In the break room when I was supposed to be wolfing down dinner. In the back of classrooms when I was supposed to be paying attention.
Of course I wanted an agent from the time I was like 5, but my mother was like, 'No, you're going to be normal, you're going to go to school, you're going to get good grades, you're going to play soccer, and if you do well, if you keep your grades up, you can do one community-theater show a year'.
Some things you can shake off, some things dig deeper than soccer.
We're looking at ideas to remodel Arrowhead Stadium. It's 30 years old and it's not a good American soccer stadium. We're looking at ways to improve Arrowhead-which is oriented for NFL games--for our spectators.
I played soccer growing up, and then high school came along and the football coach came out one day and was like, 'Hey, do you want to kick for us?' I was like, 'Sure, I'll come out and kick one day.' I got moved up to varsity and that's how the story began.
I was a runner and a soccer player living in Okinawa, Japan and I didn't have recruiters coming in to recruit me for sports. So how many kids out there and planning to go to college are super stud athletes but don't have a chance because they come from some podunk town and no one comes to watch them?
I didn't know that you could race your bike until after college. I didn't know anything about cycling except that I rode my bike from class to class or to my friend's house. But here I am an athlete, I ran, I played soccer, I swam and people are riding their bikes and racing them? I had never seen a bike race.
Generalities don't count and won't help you in football.
I don't know how I kept sane - maybe I'm not sane
Sir John Hall was a multi-millionaire when I came back to Newcastle. With all the players I've bought, I'm trying to make him just an ordinary millionaire.
I'll never play at Wembley again, unless I play at Wembley again.
