Granit Xhaka 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 it wouldn't be wise to lose the best years of my sports career at university.

I learned more in that first year in the NBA than I could have in four years of college.

Going to college offered me the chance to play football for four more years.

The Olympic Games must not be an end in itself, they must be a means of creating a vast programme of physical education and sports competitions for all young people.

We started with that, basically to help kids, and then we created a pole vault school, which is part of the club and exists to this day. The club and school exist.

I played all kinds of sports when I was young: tennis, handball, basketball, some soccer. I focused on basketball when I was 16 or 17 and then came to the U.S. when I was 20.

In sports... you play from the time you're eight years old, and then you're done forever.

Both the velodrome and the Commonwealth swimming pool are open to the public and are frequently used by local schools and the local community. Over the last six years young people have been inspired to take up swimming and cycling more seriously; some of them are now coming through as Olympic champions or hopefuls.

I'm going to go back to the Bay Area, this is my thing, and I'm just going to open my own school of baseball. Find a facility, find a place and just teach kids. That's what I want to do.

My main objective is to prepare candidates for professional baseball; however, the majority of our graduates will go home as much better qualified amateurs.

I had the best three years of my career at Liverpool.

I would love to have a career like Zinedine Zidane. He stopped playing, took some time, realised he liked coaching, and started working in the youth academy. I could follow a similar path.

I was playing first-team football at Cardiff at 16.

I played football in college and what I really wanted to do was be a football coach.

I was still only 19 when I went to Scotland, but it was a good loan move for me to play those extra games.

Mostly as a No 10. When I was really young, I played as a striker, but I grew a lot when I was 15 or 16.

I played three years as a junior.

I played semi-pro at Chalfont St. Peter but it's so hard to become a pro footballer - I think there's even more competition than acting.

Real Madrid wanted me to join their academy. It was a big decision to move when I was 15. It's a key age for a youngster, and you're close to your friends and family. But I moved to Madrid, and my family stayed at home. It made me mature earlier than normal. That was a very big decision, and it changed me in a positive way.

I've coached grassroots for eight years, I coached middle school, and I coached high school.

I have been involved in this sport since I was eight years old, so, hopefully, I can train and coach athletes down the line.

When you're growing up and thinking about being a footballer, you want to make as many caps and play as many games as you can.

Before I was a manager, I was a player for 11 years.

I think I had a positive development at Chelsea. I was very young when I arrived, only 20, and the problem I had was injuries.