Playing soccer is what I've done and known all my life…

I always had that, even when I was a kid in a go-kart or when I was playing soccer or tennis: that need of…

— Fernando Alonso

I have been an athlete for much of my life starting at the age of 4.

— Brandi Rhodes

I started playing soccer first and then basketball. I had a leg injury when I was young and my mom said, 'come on, try…

— Goran Dragic

I was looking forward to playing soccer, playing more minutes on the pitch, and I didn't have the chance to play more minutes in…

— Bastian Schweinsteiger

I had a very simple, unremarkable and happy life. And I grew up in a very small town. And so my life was made…

— Ishmael Beah

Everybody has down times and stuff that they have to work through. I worked through that stuff because I've always wanted to be playing…

— Tiffeny Milbrett

Like so many of the players, I started at La Masia at the age of 11. I can't ever imagine not playing for Barcelona,…

— Xavi

My father was always pushing me to become a basketball player. In Africa, when you're a kid, every kid loves to play soccer, and…

— Serge Ibaka

My first memories are playing soccer for Carlingford Redbacks with my stepdad as the coach.

— Aaron Mooy

I wanted to play both things because I was really good at playing soccer. Maybe better than tennis. I chose tennis because it was…

— Roberto Bautista Agut

He had an eternity to play that ball... but he took too long over it.

— Martin Tyler

The natural thing in Africa is to start playing soccer at 8 or 9. You go outside and you play like kids play basketball…

— Masai Ujiri

I grew up playing soccer with the boys - quite far from reading magazines.

— Freja Beha Erichsen

When you're starting off as a young writer, you look at all the stuff that's gone before and the stuff that's influenced you, and…

— Neil Gaiman

When I was starting out, being a young entrepreneur was not fashionable. Parents would ask, 'When are you going to get a real job?'

— Kevin Harrington