I remember being in West Ham's youth team and seeing Jody Morris play for Chelsea at 17 and you scoring for Liverpool on your debut when you were 18. I was watching it on Soccer Saturday and I was like, "I can't believe he's scored!" It's professional jealousy. It's best to be honest about it. It gave me real desire. I was thinking "God I want that to be me".
Other teams have offered me really big money but my love for Galatasaray is real. I want to play in major leagues and my dream team is Liverpool F.C. As I always mention, Liverpool attracts me because of their tradition. In Europe, I am a Liverpool supporter, so if I go to play in Europe, I would like to play for them.
Liverpool is a massive club in reputation, but as soon as I came here, it felt like Atletico to me. It is a working city, an honest city. The people work all week, and on Saturday they want to go to Anfield and watch the best team in the world.
When I was a player, you only left the club if they wanted to get rid of you. That was your team - if you were at West Ham, you didn't leave until the manager wanted to replace you. You didn't think about playing for Arsenal or Chelsea.
Out of all the clubs who were interested, I got the feeling that, deep down, Chelsea showed that they really wanted me. There were lots of reasons I came to Chelsea. They showed a real desire to get me to come here. I didn't have to think about it too much.
I want young girls to dream about being professional soccer players instead of just watching the boys go out and play.
What brought me here was a desire to keep playing and the exciting project the Cosmos proposed to me. As well as being able to play, which is my passion and what I like doing, they also gave me the chance to help develop a youth academy, where I can bring my experience and knowledge to bear.
I sneaked into an Everton match once. I'm a Liverpool supporter, but Liverpool were away, Liverpool reserves weren't playing, there wasn't even a youth match, so I took my son into an Everton match. God help me. It wasn't me.
I was very tired when I left West Ham, but that's my character really. I gave everything. It can be bad, that, because you need to be at your best when you manage a football team. The players take it on board and see how you are.
My first loan spell I was 18. I went to Crewe, and I felt I'd scored all these goals for Liverpool's youth teams and I'd go to League One and it would be the same. I quickly found out that it wasn't. It took me to come back, captain the U23 side for a year and a half to really get my confidence back.
At West Ham, I was the last person to be offered a scholarship. I remember an Under 18 match against Fulham. I was 16 and had to prove myself. Everyone else already had their scholarship. It was probably one of my best games. Knowing that every day I'd have to fight has made me into the person I am today.
When I was at Hamburg, 17 or 18, Ruud van Nistelrooy signed, and he helped me a lot. He saw my first training session, and he talked to me. He told me I was a good player. He gave me confidence, and I want to thank him for that.
At West Ham there were a couple of French players and they helped me get used to the team and the club.
I just want to play well, have the people in Chicago enjoy watching soccer. You have a very good baseball team, a very good ice hockey team, and a very good football team. Hopefully you'll have a very good soccer team.
I think about everyone in my life that was harsh with me or who gave me tough love and told me things that I didn't want to hear in that moment; fortunately it ended up being really good for me and I have nothing but respect for them today and those are the people I return to when I need that real honest advice.
They gave me 18 experiments to complete in my 10 days in the ISS. That's a lot. Everyone told me I didn't have to complete all of them, that it wasn't expected of me. But I knew everyone was watching me, so I gave up meals and sleep and completed all 18 experiments. It's a very Korean thing to do.
When I was 18, I never expected to be what I was - you hope to make your debut, to play for the national team, and I want to achieve something similar off the pitch to what I did on the pitch.