“It’s is always nice to be respected as a footballer. I am going to go out and enjoy the game and if I can set one or two goals up then so be it – I would love to.”

Being at a club that supported me meant a lot.

That was in the past – we’re in the future now.

I didn’t want to go there [America] at 34 years old and for people to say he’s only going for the money. It’s not what I’m going out there to do

I’ve always come back from adversity, and I’ve always had the mentality of proving people wrong.

You will go through tough times, it’s about getting through them.

With United, we’d all grown up together, we all wanted to win the biggest trophy in football. We did it togther.

[Meeting Mandela] was the highlight of my career; to meet such a great man and a strong man and such a passionate man about sport and life will always stay with me.

I’m not silly enough to think I’m going to change the whole culture … but I do have a belief that soccer can go to a different level.

To have a successful team, you have to have great players of course – but you have to have good personalities and good people as well.

I love little kids looking up to me, young players looking up to me, respecting me.

Everyone’s been so quick to say that I’m really thick or I haven’t got a brain. People will think whatever they want to think.

My secret is practice.

Some people think that I haven’t got the brains to be that clever.

Every situation has changed me as a person.

I wasn’t as fit as I would of liked to have been, going to the World Cup, but I’m not sure what difference that made.

It’s my responsibility to walk around the hotel with a big smile on my face and not worry about what’s happened in the last game.

It was so much easier to connect with my fans when I was smaller. I could answer every message, and I enjoyed that.

Why should we need extra time in which to enjoy ourselves? If we expect to enjoy our life, we will have to learn to be joyful in all of it, not just at stated intervals when we can get time or when we have nothing else to do.

I’ve learned over the years that when it comes to success, consistency is key. Consistent hard work that we may not like doing today, but for a payoff we’ll love tomorrow. Earn it. Enjoy it.

But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

As long as I can do something that I am passionate about and that I can really enjoy and the audience can enjoy. That is where my enthusiasm comes from.

The question you should be asking isn’t, “What do I want?” or “What are my goals?” but “What would excite me?

I don’t think enjoying life is an exclusive prerogative of young people.

Our Creator would never have made such lovely days, and have given us the deep hearts to enjoy them, above and beyond all thought, unless we were meant to be immortal.