Everywhere I go now, people are like, 'That's the guy from 'Dancing With the Stars!' It's pretty good that you're not just a football player but you're in the entertainment world.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I see myself not only as a football player, but an entertainer and icon.
If you look at the footballers, you look at our celebrity culture, we seem to be saying, 'This is the way you want to be'. We seem to be a society that celebrates all the wrong people.
Celebrity culture, it's everywhere, isn't it? It's reality TV, Big Brother. I didn't become a footballer to be famous, I became a footballer to be successful. I didn't want to be famous. Now people want to be famous. Why? Why would you want people following you about all day?
I'm a big soccer fan, so any soccer player that I meet, I always get star struck. I've met a lot of big stars - Justin Timberlake, Michael Buble - and I don't ever get starstruck, but when I met famous ex-football players, I just got completely starstruck.
What's so wonderful about football and business and show business is that every time I start thinking I'm special, I get knocked on my ass.
Football fans share a universal language that cuts across many cultures and many personality types. A serious football fan is never alone. We are legion, and football is often the only thing we have in common.
To the fans, it does not matter a damn how you are. You are seen as the footballer, the idol, so no one thinks to stop and ask you, 'Hey, how are you?'
As an athlete, I was never really comfortable with being a celebrity.
Why does everyone think they need to be a star? It's ridiculous. The celebrity culture is so silly, and the fact that people grow up thinking that it's something to aspire to just seems wrong. I don't mean to bash my life. I love my life; I just think it's not the only way to go.
I am not a movie star or a football player, I just do my thing.