Playing for 14 years definitely took its toll mentally. I decided when I was playing my last season that when I retired from football I would never go back into it, and I've never regretted that decision.
Mentally I was retired, and physically I was retired. I was playing recreational ball. But when the decision happened with Chris Bosh and LeBron, I felt like I could really be good in that system.
When Zinédine Zidane retired, he said he'd never be a manager and it wasn't in his plans. But after two years out, he missed football a lot. I think he retired a little bit early, he could have gone on for at least another season, and it would have been a pleasure for us to have him.
When I was playing football I never enjoyed it that much, I was never happy. If I scored two goals, I wanted a third, I always wanted more. Now it's all over I can look back with satisfaction, but I never felt that way when I was playing.
When I was 14, I started playing for Taye Academy in the city of Owerri, and then my whole life became football. I dreamed of playing for certain clubs, or going places I'd never been before, but I just kept my ambitions to myself because I never really expected that I could get to these places.
I never worry about injury. When you go out there, you're playing football. And when you start worrying about those things, that's more when they happen, playing timid or keeping it in the back of your mind.
I started playing at six. I was at a school always playing football with my friends. But I was always bored at home. I asked my father if he could start me in a football team. He took me to a team called Rupel Boom, who were playing in the fourth division in Belgium, and I stayed there for four years.
I've been playing music for over 20 years now. I started playing when I was 14 years old. To everyone who has said I was an overnight success... where have you been the last 20 years?
Of all the years playing football, I have never felt like an undisputed starter - that would be an error.
I never thought I'd be playing 60 games a season for City, I knew I would be playing half of that if I was lucky. I knew at a club with that much power and resources there would always be a flood of players into the team.
I was 27 or 28 years old when I really decided I would become a manager. I would go home from training at Lazio, grab a folder and pretend I was taking a training session. You know the way kids imagine things, when they are playing? I would do the same as an adult, playing at being a manager.
I had a band when I was 14, and we would play around in my hometown of Middlesbrough, and we'd go to the club afterwards, which was the Purple Onion then. There would be live bands playing, and in between that, the DJ would be playing records.
It hasn't been until the last couple years that I've started playing close to my age. But it's fun playing the younger roles because it takes you back to the teen years.
When I'm retired someday, when I'm done playing football, that's when I'll be relaxing and look back at some things.
About a year after I retired from playing, I decided that I wanted to getback to college, where I had the greatest time of my life, and to get involved with college football.
We never had anybody who froze to death playing football. You probably had somebody who died from heat stroke playing football.
My first experience with football was not very good because I didn't plan on playing football. I was just playing hookie one day and I was a sophomore and decided not to go to class. And the principal - normally he does his rounds and I thought I had him down pretty good where he was going to be - he sort of walked up behind me and scared me. He noticed I could run real fast. So that's how I got introduced to football.