There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring. In the tactical area, I think I just have more than most other players.

Speed is often confused with insight. When I start running earlier than the others, I appear faster.

It's disappointing to see how football, the world's No. 1 sport, is not No. 1 when it comes to development. It seems to me that a wealth of practical football knowledge is being squandered.

Football is not about suffering. It's about enjoyment. Control the ball, be friendly with it, try to attack, try to score goals. Of course defending is part of it, but you can defend in a lot of ways.

There has obviously been a lot more attention on me but it's not going to change what I do or who I am. It's the same old me, playing the same old sport. I've just got to keep it casual and that's what I plan to do.

If the teams with the best players always won, football would be boring.

Sports is part of the pop culture landscape in this country, just like music and television and movies.

I have always been an outstanding football player, I have always had uncanny abilities, great arm strength, an immense ability to play the game from a quarterback standpoint. The problem was that I wasn't given the liberty to do certain things when I was young.