“There was this old soccer game called 'Goal' for the old Nintendo, and ever since then, I've played everything from the old school games to the 360.”
“I know conventional wisdom has always been to go to Europe, and I did that early on, and I tried it, but I realised pretty quickly if I wasn't playing, nothing else mattered - I wasn't going to be happy.”
“That's a part that's always a challenge for athletes: trying to keep the passion alive while knowing it's still your job. There's no question that at some point, probably sooner rather than later, I'll be pretty burned out. And when that time comes, then I'll take a step back and take a look at it and see if I want to keep going.”
“I don't think in terms of legacy or that kind of stuff. I've always thought that'll take care of itself if I did everything right on a day-to-day basis.”
“I grew up playing video games. And the cool thing about the EA Sports games is they took me through the whole motion-capture thing, where they put little sensors on my body so the video game really is me. It actually moves the way I move.”
“I like teff, an Ethiopian grain. It's not so popular in the States yet, but it's really good, almost like a porridge. And I love sushi, but it's not always that healthy, so I don't keep it at home.”
“I think it's probably a good lesson for other people to follow - to not always make the decision that's popular for others, but to do what you feel like is the right thing to do.”
“If you've followed my career at all, you will know that I perform best in comfortable surroundings. Though other leagues may seem more enticing to other players, it's something I'm just not interested in doing personally.”
“I talk periodically with the producers at EA and I try to be as honest as possible because as great as EA does, you just don't want to hear good things. These people are really passionate about making games and making them as realistic as possible.”
“I think where we're still a little bit behind some other countries is just our pure soccer knowledge and our savvy on the field. That takes time and generations that have watched soccer growing up, played the game growing up.”