Coming to Germany is not easy. People might think it's easy because I'm doing so well, but it's not at all.

I feel like German football is a lot more aggressive and faster. I've never played in the Premier League, so I couldn't say what it was like. But going from youth football, I would say it's a lot faster and lot more physical.

I think I could be a role model to people growing up.

My friends in Kennington always ask me, ‘can I have a shirt for my little brother or cousin,' and I always send them shirts. I will never forget where I have come from, because I know what it is like growing up in that area, and it is not nice."

My father was raised in an orphanage, and my mother was an immigrant from Poland whose first childhood memory was of hunger. Somehow, despite all of that, I am called a member of the 'elite.' If so, I damned well earned it.

My father (like most fathers) always taught me that a man is someone who stands by his principles, someone who lives with integrity and puts his family before himself. That last one is important, because as a young boy, it's your pops who provides you with security.

Well, I don't know if this is true of everyone, but I have this relationship with my parents where, despite however mature or articulate or grown-up I think I've become, as soon as I go home, I turn into this petulant 13-year-old, especially with the tone of my voice.

I do tend to look back to my parents generation and think wow! what a great way to be, to live with one person for a lifetime, to bring your kids up in these really solid families.