Ian Rush Quotes

I was about five or six when I went to the little foundation camps. I got into the academy when I was nine, and I've gone through every age group since and into the first team.

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.

When people say 'American soccer,' they think of the U.S. national team. But American soccer also includes Major League Soccer, and until we have a league that produces players at the rate other leagues around the world do, I don't believe we'll ever get to where we want to be.

My wish is that soccer in the U.S. become on the same level like the Premier League, Spanish league, or the Bundesliga.

It's been a big flaw of ours in the soccer department that a lot of our best athletes go and play other sports. But I think young players have seen me, and others, go over to Europe and play in some of the best leagues - and MLS is improving so much, too.

I think it's important to make clear, you know, that the problem with American soccer... it isn't talent.

I think what we really want to do is to create a real soccer nation. We want to have kids really wanting to play the sport.

All three of my kids play soccer. Each one of them started from the time they were about 5 or 6, and we just love it.

Kids in Africa start kicking a ball when they are six or seven years old, if not younger. It's like baseball, basketball and football in America. If you're talented, people will find you. That's what happened with soccer. The number of academies has grown rapidly, and people are really into it.

Germany is where I had to become a true professional. They play in big games when they are young. We could model some of our soccer system after what they do.

St. Louis has a super-rich history of soccer, so I was very fortunate growing up to have coaches that played.

My dad had a soccer school that he used to run, the Mark Chamberlain Soccer Academy, I used to go to that for two years until the age of seven.

I started playing with my dad, and then I started going to soccer schools in Sunderland and managed to get scouted from there.

I hope that everyone tries to help to increase the level of the MLS and also that American players like Pulisic are here and not in Europe. That should be the goal for America. I just try to help as much as I can.

I'm a big advocate of starting soccer young and always having the ball at your foot, but that's because I didn't do that. If I'd focused more on that when I was a kid, it would've been so helpful. It took me, like, halfway through college to feel comfortable with the ball.

I've played soccer since I was five.

The more people who come from abroad who played soccer and are brought up playing it and watching it, then come over to America and bring what they know and what they play, that's how the sport will grow.

If you want to know whether soccer is big in America, pick a weekend, go to any park in the land, and pay attention. We're there. We've always been.

Fortunately for me, it's my most favorite drill, and that is finishing. However, from a young age, soccer players in this country are not taught how to properly finish, and I think you see that through the professional ranks, that we don't have that killer instinct of the forwards from other countries.

I get asked this a lot: Why has soccer not succeeded? My answer is, soccer has succeeded. It is already the fastest growing youth participation sport in the U.S. It has already succeeded at the youth level, no question.

Kids are learning to play. That's why we're seeing an emergence. That's why we're seeing the Under-17s and Under-20s doing better in international football.

I played street soccer; that's where I started. If you look at South America, that's why they have technical players.

I just want to play well, have the people in Chicago enjoy watching soccer. You have a very good baseball team, a very good ice hockey team, and a very good football team. Hopefully you'll have a very good soccer team.

For me, playing through all the youth teams at Borussia Dortmund was a really good experience because I was able to play against talented opponents at a relatively early age.

There is a specific mentality that is put into the young players at Barcelona, and from nine or 10 years old, you have to make good seasons because, if not, you are out.