At 14 I went to Stuttgart academy and it was a big dream. But I felt lonely. It also got hard later. At 18 I hoped to play in the second team but the club said I was not strong enough.
Around the age of 14, I was very discouraged from a coach. It was my first youth club team while playing soccer. She told me at the time that I wasn't good enough to play on the team, that I would never get into the game.
My goals were small. My goal was to become a big enough stand-up that I wouldn't have to do radio. I could sell out a club, which is like 300 seats. If I got big enough, I could sell before I got there, and I wouldn't have to get up at 6 in the morning to do radio. That was pretty much the dream. I had no idea I'd be playing Madison Square Garden or anything.
I've always tried to play golf with a golf club. I have a hard time driving with my rifle. I mean, 18 is really narrow ... I have no problem with the course, except for the tee shot on 18.
We have to be mentally prepared for every team we play. If we play a team who has a big name on their chests, then we are going to come out ready. But if we play a team who doesn't have a big name or a star player, we have a hard time coming out ready.
The big thing in Ghana is a strong sense that if you failed in your education that was it. There was no system... to give you support later on, there really wasn't much of a second chance so there was a big emphasis in... this is your life chance and you have got to take it.
The national team is part of my life. I have an incredible history, of many conquests and also many defeats. But to play for Brazil, I have to have a club and play well. I'm not going to be picked on my past or because of my sponsor, as many have said.
Up until the time I was 14 years old, I was sure that I was going to be a big-league baseball player. But that dream came to a rude awakening when I got cut from my high school baseball team.
My dream is to play with the selecao in the World Cup in Brazil and I will have more chance to realise the dream if I play for a big team.
When my ban was relaxed I began playing club cricket. Imagine, for a person who had played at Lord's, to play with a club team who didn't have proper kit against another club team in Lahore.
I really feel like that concept of enjoying the now and not worrying about the future is what my coach has been trying to teach me for 14 years - and that is what has made me such a different athlete 10 years later, and that is what has made me strong enough mentally to make this Olympic team.
When you are a big team, and you play away against a second or third-tier team, there is always pressure.
When I went to Le Havre, I wasn't physically ready. I was skinny and not strong enough to play in a tough league. They told me to go back to the second team. I was very disappointed, but maybe that helped me to be the way I am now.
It is clear that for any player of Barcelona's youth squad their dream is to play for the club's first team.
I had 11 or 12 years in Barcelona, my family is there and also many friends. The fans loved me, I felt highly valued throughout the club and it is always hard to leave the club of your dreams.
Really, the club is like a big family. The locker-room spirit is also similar to what I had experienced at Liverpool, but I really like it here at Juventus, because it's not just a set of champions. The sense of a team, the group, is strongly felt.
What was my dream when I was 18? My big decision when I was 18 was full keg or pony-size keg. I knew by about 16 or 17 that I was going to be an actor. That was based on the fact that there were not a lot of things that I could be really good at, or that I would enjoy enough to not run out of the building screaming.