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You want to play in the best stadiums against the best players - your Real Madrid's and Barcelona's - you want to play those teams.

You need to have a big squad; it's important when you're in the Champions League, with the amount of games we've got.

Like so many of the players, I started at La Masia at the age of 11. I can't ever imagine not playing for Barcelona, let alone not playing soccer for a career. I don't ever want to play anywhere else.

When you play in the Premier League, say you're playing against a lower-end team, they set up to defend all the time, they set up to block you off. But when you play in the Champions League, all the other teams are used to winning every week, so it's more of an open game, it's more attacking, end-to-end.

It's not so easy for us when we play teams who have a different mindset, like Chelsea or Inter Milan, because they have the intention of trying to stop us rather than playing a game that is more attractive for the spectators to enjoy.

I think Barcelona and the Spanish national team have been good for soccer because there are a lot of teams that come up playing from the back: with the goalie, the defense, moving up a defender to midfield, playing attacking soccer. I think fans want to see that. They want to see beautiful soccer, a spectacle, and Barcelona does that.

The Champions League is the competition everyone wants to be in.

The Champions League is a big ambition, and all the footballers want to play in it; it is a very important competition.

I never liked going to school and would sham and play football. I played in the centre forward position. If ever given a choice, I would love to represent Barcelona.

Barcelona are my favourite team in Spain, let's put it that way.