I feel sorry sometimes for these sportsmen and women who put in just as much effort as the footballers. For example, athletes train at least as hard as footballers but have to be happy if they can earn enough to finance a decent education.

Fear doesn't exist in football, especially for Real Madrid.

There are a lot of famous comedians from Liverpool, then obviously the Beatles, and the football club. That's what people in Liverpool are passionate about.

Celebrity culture, it's everywhere, isn't it? It's reality TV, Big Brother. I didn't become a footballer to be famous, I became a footballer to be successful. I didn't want to be famous. Now people want to be famous. Why? Why would you want people following you about all day?

I feel very strong as an individual, but as a famous footballer I know I am prone to certain things. All the media have a continuous interest for me. It varies from once a year to every day interest.

I'm actually about as famous as a fourth division footballer from the 70s.

All I dreamed of when I became a footballer was to play for a club as big as Real Madrid. It's maybe the most famous and best club in the history of football.

I think some fans are very passionate, they just say what they want to say but they just need to slow it down a bit. We're still only human. We're not what people think. We might be famous but we love the sport and just want to play football.

Messi is as famous as any footballer has ever been, and yet, when it comes down to it, we don't know much about him. I read that he is a family man and likes to walk his dogs, but beyond that, he's a mystery, really. I like that.

A friend at school was always being laughed at because his father emptied dustbins for a living. But those who laughed worshipped famous footballers. This is an example of our topsy-turvy view of 'success.' Who would we miss most if they did not work for a month, the footballer or the garbage collector?

Football is a great love because I was born into a family of players and therefore born into football. I'm fortunate to have a style of play that a lot of people like. It's a privilege to be able to do what I like best and in my own way, but I'm fortunate that people like it, and that motivates me even more.

As a kid we moved around a fair bit as a family. It was difficult to make friends but sport helped. Once people saw you kick a football it broke down barriers. Instead of being the new skinny black kid you were the kid everyone wanted on their team.

We've got some talented people in my family in regards to football, and we do it the right way.

I am the only player who has been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and am the second-best player in my family.

I'm a very traditional person. The tattoos are about my grandmother dying and they tell the story about my mother and father, my brothers and my sister, my kids. It's pretty much a family tree on my arm with my life in football too.

When I was younger, I had some close friends who always loved European football, and Real Madrid at that time were the dominant force. I remember family holidays when we used to go to Spain, and we'd bring back replica shirts of Real Madrid and pretend to be the players when we played in the park.

It's true that in my family, everyone loves football. So it's great to have a family that's united behind you and doesn't leave you.

I always thought I wanted to play professionally, and I always knew that to do that I'd have to make a lot of sacrifices. I made sacrifices by leaving Argentina, leaving my family to start a new life. I changed my friends, my people. Everything. But everything I did, I did for football, to achieve my dream.

I've never made football my priority. My priorities are my faith and my dependence on God.

You have to have faith in your own qualities; that is part of being a footballer: being strong in your head. That is more than half of the quality you need to be a football player.

Faith is the most important thing in the world to me. It's the greatest strength I've had. It's helped me get through the hard times. You're not going to win every one of your football games. I've always said I'm not going to make football my god. A lot of coaches put so much into coaching football games that they have nothing left.

I developed a mechanism so that whatever mistakes I made, I would bounce straight back. Whatever was happening off the pitch, I could put it to one side and maintain my form. Call it mental resilience or a strong mind, but that is what we mean when we talk about experience in a football team.

People always think they know better. In football, everybody thinks they can be head coach and do it better. It's the same in F1: they always know better, even if they have no experience of it.

Great moments of entertainment, great football, unforgettable evenings. I think that's what it's all about: experience, emotions, and the special touch that the Champions League brings on and off the field.