Christian Eriksen Quotes

I started playing full-equipment football when I was 6 years old. My mom actually got me started in it.

I didn't play organized football until I was in the seventh grade. Up until that point, I only played at recess and in the backyard.

I learnt so much at Coventry - I was playing as a regular at 17, most weeks. And that's something that left me in good stead.

I've been in football since I was eight. Of course I know what I'm talking about.

It was very hard for me as a kid to get through as a footballer in Uruguay.

I started playing football in the streets.

I remember my first practice, from Pee Wee football when I was, like, 10, and I didn't know what was going on.

I guess my earliest football memories are of playing in the street and also the little pitches at school. I joined the local football team in my village when I was small, but we would play only once or twice a week. I honed my skills just by playing for fun with friends after school.

All of my football, even my introduction, even my coaches, most of them came from Europe, particularly England. So pretty much my whole footballing education and introduction was through English football.

A lot of the guys who played in the 1995 final for Ajax had been there since the age of 12 or 13. Patrick Kluivert and Edgar Davids had been there from age seven or eight, so I had a lot of catching up to do.

I came from amateur football.

Football is my true love. I played with boys until I was 11 and then for a girls' club in Middlesbrough until I was 16.

I'm not sure what the right age is to start playing football.

To be honest, I started playing for Belgium in the youth team stages. As a kid, Belgium was all I knew. We played football with my schoolmates as well as at the academy.

I am a great football player. I had my own club when I was 14 years old. Football is in my blood, and I have been a fan of Fulham for the last 30 years.

These kids are the future of the National Football League. They're the next generation that will be playing high school football, NCAA football, and some even to the pros.

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.

Millwall is where I learnt my trade, and it was the most important learning period of my life - my apprenticeship in understanding football.

My generation put in a lot more hours playing football after school than kids today. These days, all the football these kids play, they play at their clubs, so the clubs need to work seriously on the basic skills.

The way children are taught football doesn't encourage skill; the focus is on other areas.

I moved to Manchester United when I was a 17-year-old kid. Nemanja Vidic was five years older than me and Rio Ferdinand nearly nine years, and at the time, they were the best central defenders in the world. They never had a bad game.

I've been playing semi-professional football since I was 14, really.

When I first arrived at Napoli, I was the ball boy, which meant that I got to watch as the legends trained. Then, once I joined the youth team as a young teenager, I was a midfielder just like Tardelli.

I've been playing as early as I can recall. I don't even remember the first time I picked up a basketball.

Little details about young footballers catch your eye when you have been around a big club for a long time. At first, it can be minor things, like the way certain young players stand out from the group when the academy lads cross paths with the senior team on their way to training in the morning.