In 1989, when I was just a baby, we moved to France because of some conflicts that were brewing in Armenia.

I will not retreat; I will find the strength to reach my goal.

When I came first to Dortmund, Jurgen Klopp said, 'Listen, Mkhitaryan, it's your family name - it's too long. So Henrikh, it's too long. Let's call you Micki. Are you okay?' I said, 'Okay, no problem.' And since that day, they started calling me Micki.

If you play football, you have to try to do the maximum, so I'm always doing the maximum for myself because, after my football career, I want to sit down and think I did something good.

I never looked at basketball as work. I always enjoyed it as my hobby. I loved it. Once that love is gone, and I'm tired of working out every day and doing all the stuff to get me ready for games, and I'm tired of lifting and conditioning and doing all that other stuff around it, and I'd rather stay in bed, then it's time to go.

Team sports are very important for shaping personalities. It's important that kids understand the mentality behind playing team sports and playing for one another and playing with friends.

One of my most vivid memories of the mid-1950s is of crying into a washbasin full of soapy grey baby clothes - there were no washing machines - while my handsome and adored husband was off playing football in the park on Sunday morning with all the delightful young men who had been friends to both of us at Cambridge three years earlier.

As a World Champion, it is important that you face the #1 contender. That is what makes it sport and not entertainment; otherwise, what are the girls fighting at 145 lbs. training to work towards if they know they will never be given a title shot, even if they become the best in the world?