Quote

Many people, many girls have tried to teach me the rules to football. And you would think that it would get in my head that way, but I just don't understand it.

You can teach all the other stuff, you know. You can teach shooting the ball, you can teach having a good touch... passing and whatnot, but when you get out there on the field, it's just a mindset you need to go into the game with.

What happens is once you start to understand football, you realise that it's not just about the physical side of the game and chasing after a ball. It's a strategic sport which requires a lot of intelligence. It's a very mental game.

I had an instinct before and maybe now I don't have that instinct as much as knowing what to do, what shots to hit, where to place the ball, things like that.

The best thing about football for me is the reacting. It's a lot of instincts. But training, for me, it's more for the meditating. And I spend more time training than actually playing football. So I get into that zone during training more than anything.

When you're a kid you just think about where you are going to be to put yourself in a position for the next scoring chance. But as you develop, you start to do things that may not catch the eye of the normal football watcher, the dropping back, the closing down.

Basketball players want contact to get a foul called. Slaps on the wrist and bumps on the shoulder are big time to them, and they don't like that. In football, you get that all the time. The whole mental makeup is different.

I play football like chess. You have to think a lot and anticipate what could happen after you make your move.

When you just work tactically, in pure football sessions, you can see the way they can think football.