I knew Manuel Pellegrini from my time in Spain. I'd only heard good things about him, that he was someone who instilled the confidence in his players to go out and play good, attacking football.
I've played so many games of football now, and even though it is at a higher level, at the end of the day, football is football. You are just playing with better players.
I'm a footballing romantic just like Johan Cruyff. We like football that is attractive, attacking and easy on the eye. When you win playing like this it's twice as satisfying. I've always played attacking football: my footballing ideals are very clear and well defined. I've grown up at Barcelona with that style and that's the one I like. I think it's good to win like that, by taking the initiative right from the off.
I hope we can get to a point where women players are being paid properly all around the world so the only thing they have to worry about is playing football and playing football alone.
My second year in Rome was very good. Back then, a striker was a striker. Strikers scored goals; they didn't defend. Today this is normal, but it wasn't at that time. If you wanted to play my style of football you couldn't have old players or famous players who were unwilling to do the job both ways: attacking and also defending.
As German players we have something special inside us, because of our football history. We know we have to win, it is what is expected, so we have a good focus.
Even when I was growing up as a young boy, when I was playing schoolboy football, there were other guys who were as good as I was, maybe some even better technically. But I was prepared to stick to what was going to make me become a professional football player when I left school, and that was a lot of sacrifice and because my attitude was right.
When you come up against a big, powerful football nation, you are playing against history. When you talk about street football, you are talking about South American players who have grown up with nothing.
Football players are constantly talking about their workouts, trading secrets, helping each other become the best players they can be. Now that I'm retired, it's no different.
To me, attacking football happens when Makelele gets the ball and passes it to the central defender who passes it to the right-back who comes forward and judges the situation. If he can do something he passes forward or runs with the ball, if not he gives it back to Makelele who builds the attack again. That is attacking football. In England attacking football is giving the ball to Makelele and having him hit it forward no matter what, even if everybody is marked.
I always loved playing an attacking form of flowing football.
Well, when you're playing good football, it's good football and if you don't have good football, then you're not really playing good football.
I want kids to continue to enjoy our game and benefit from the rewards of playing the ultimate team sport. That's why it's important for young players, parents, and coaches to know about U.S.A. Football's Head Up Football program.
Hopefully, now there are kids, both male and female, even senior players, who open themselves up now and are more open to going abroad and playing their football. I've learnt so much, and they can, too.
Football has never been about young or old players - it is about good or bad players. If you're 13 or 31 and good enough, you're not too young or old.
German football is like English football. The Germans and the English do not play like a Brazilian side. They have to improve, bring up their young players, who have character.