I signed for Mohun Bagan and then I got the news that Bhaichung also joined the club. The first day he met me he told me that I have heard about you and you are doing well. I told everyone in my family and friends that Bhaichung told me that.

I want to elongate my cricketing career as a consistent player. I have personal goals I would like to achieve someday.

When I was a kid, I never thought much about football. I thought about following in my family’s footsteps and going into professional wrestling.

I noticed that when I touched the ball on the field, you could hear this shrill noise in the crowd with all the birds screaming like at a Beatles concert.

The more players I have, the more difficult choices there are for me, but the better it is for LFC.

We all know what flopping is when we see it. The stuff that you see is where guys aren’t really getting hit at all and are just flailing around like a fish out of water.

We murdered them 0-0.

I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.

As a coach, one thing that used to frustrate me was one player would make a bad decision, and that’s all you would read about in the papers all over the country. We have so many athletes do so many wonderful things for other people, and you never read about it.

The only time my prayers are never answered is on the golf course.

I was a Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan fan growing up.

I’m a golfer, and what are the two sports you can do till you drop? Golf and surfing. They’re great for you limber-wise, they’re great for you health-wise, and they put you in sweet locations.

Some of the stuff I do on the court is what most people think they can do.

So like any football or basketball coach, you always always believe you’re going to win.

After the first day of practice, there’s not one guy who’s playing at 100 percent or who feels great. Sometimes, getting up in the morning and brushing your teeth is the hardest part of the day – it just hurts.

The nice thing is that when people come up to me, it’s the football they remember, not all the other rubbish.

My grandfather was one of the very, very first, if not the first, Samoan wrestlers to become known on a worldwide basis.

I do think coaches need to get away from the game more, though. It’s good for them.

Oh, I can’t play soccer, and I’m not a great swimmer. I won’t drown, but you won’t see me doing laps in a pool.

I like the celebrations when I see my teammates do it, when I see fellow footballers on the international scene do it. I think it looks good, it suits most of them, if you know what to do, synchronise, then do it.

Pop flies, in a sense, are just a diversion for a second baseman. Grounders are his stock trade.

In football, I don’t have a lot of friends. The people who I really trust, there are not many… Most of the time, I’m alone.

I don’t really focus on these things – on what tags are given to me or what people think of me off the field – stuff like that. My main focus is always to do well on the field for the Indian cricket team. When people say good things about me off the field, I am more than happy to accept them.

I try to encourage all my teammates, and I sure hope that some day all athletes – my kids, high school kids – get the same level of care I get. Because you can play for a long period of time without having knee replacements, without having all the major head trauma that people are dealing with.

I was 19 or 20 when The Beatles were at their peak, and I was coming up to the peak of my career, too. I was also the first footballer to have long hair, and that’s how I got my nickname ‚the Fifth Beatle.‘

I don’t really care how the Patriots are perceived, truthfully. I really don’t. I really don’t. Look, if you’re a fan of our team, you root for us, you believe in our team, and you believe in what we’re trying to accomplish. If you’re not a fan of us, you have a different opinion.

I support Real Madrid. I’m a big fan of Cristiano Ronaldo.

I plan on taking athletics as far as I can.

When I go to a restaurant, yeah, I know that a line is probably going to form in front of the table, but didn’t I always wish for that? Yeah, I did.

Lots of young players have triumphed at United, so why can’t it happen to me? I’m not worried I’m young – it’s an incentive to do the best I can.

My superhero has always been Tendulkar, and it will be Tendulkar for life. He is someone who has inspired me immensely. Just watching him play for India, I used to dream of winning games for India, because he used to do it single handedly.

I played a great horse yesterday! It took seven horses to beat him.

I idolised IM Vijayan and Krisanu Dey when I started watching football. After that, it was Bhaichung Bhutia in India and Brazilian Ronaldo abroad.

Team sports aren’t my thing. I find it easier to pick something up if I can do it at my own speed. And you don’t need a partner to go running, you don’t need a particular place, like in tennis, just a pair of trainers.

I still love football, though, and I think cooking is like football. It’s not a job, it’s a passion. When you become good at it, it’s a dream job and financially you need never to worry. Ever.

One reason I don’t want to play in England again is because we don’t have any personalities.

The danger sensation is exciting. The challenge is to find new dangers.

Never put your money against Cassius Clay, for you will never have a lucky day.

All an agent is going to do is buy things for a player, damage his eligibility, and make the player dependent on them.

You cannot mix sports with politics.

Every season is a new challenge to me, and I always set out to improve in terms of games, goals, assists.

I saw MotoGP on TV first, before I saw F1 and other types of car racing. It’s what I got more into. It was cool, there was good, exciting racing.

Everyone needs a coach. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast or a bridge player.

As Dortmund manager, I lived in a street, and my two neighbours were Schalke fans. They showed it every day, flying flags!

The bat is not a toy, it’s a weapon. It gives me everything in life, which helps me to do everything on the field.

We all started playing football against our best friends, and I can’t remember a moment where, because it was my best friend, I did not want to win against him.

When I went back to my old high school, all these kids looking at me like I’m the real big homie, the same way I look at Jay Z, Nas, or Dr. Dre. You would’ve thought Michael Jackson walked through that joint off the excitement that they had.

Please accept my resignation. I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.

I have always thought I was the best ever player.

Every night on the court I give my all, and if I’m not giving 100 percent, I criticize myself.

I aspire my country eventually has a league where all players play 50 games.

If I hit a man, his head is gonna go into the bleachers.

Bobby Knight told me this: ‚There is nothing that a good defense cannot beat a better offense.‘ In other words a good offense wins.

It’s really annoying for me. That’s not what I’m playing for, to be the face of the NBA or to be this or that or to take LeBron’s throne or whatever.

At 17, I went to Stanford University to study engineering. My time was occupied with the required reading and the extracurricular duties of managing the baseball and football teams and earning my way.

My game is really played above time. I don’t say that like I’m saying I’m ahead of my time. I’m saying, like, if I’m on the court and I throw a pass, the ball that I’ve thrown will lead my teammate right where he needs to go, before he even knows that that’s the right place to go to.

In my heart, I am always a Raider.

How do you catch a knuckleball? You wait until it stops rolling, then go pick it up.

I get a little bit emotional during a game!

Sports are basically our way of feeling sorry for ourselves. Most men can’t become athletes. We’re watching guys who actually made it. We see them dunking and making touchdowns. Then we think about ourselves when we were younger.

Would I swap what I have achieved as a cook if I could have been as successful as a footballer? Definitely.