I think where we're still a little bit behind some other countries is just our pure soccer knowledge and our savvy on the field. That takes time and generations that have watched soccer growing up, played the game growing up.

I think all players reach a point in their career where it's natural to lose some of that hunger, that desire, to sort of break out or be a star.

As a spectator, you get to watch everything, but I'd much rather be playing than watching. I'll have time to watch later in my career.

There was this old soccer game called 'Goal' for the old Nintendo, and ever since then, I've played everything from the old school games to the 360.

You know, life is long. My shooting career is long.

And I get asked all the time about my career, growing up as an athlete, as kind of an underdog type of player. I thought, what better to get your message out than to do a book?

I certainly never intended for myself an academic career and, were the academy to suffer, I'd just go do something else. I don't have a commitment to it or to really, frankly, almost any institution that assumes that it has to be stable forever.

The fact is that I made a stand a number of times in my career, and I did it because I knew I was right.