Steph Houghton 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.

Even all the top players going to Europe to play helps soccer in America, as do all the MLS players like Beckham and all that, they're trying to promote it. At the end of the day it's about getting the younger generation interested at an early age so most of them will move on and play.

The Premier League is probably the best in the world so if you have a lot of players who play well there, it's normal that they are going to grow as players.

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.

I have friends who ended up playing professionally in the Middle East and Europe.

When I went to Real Madrid, I was only 18 or 19 years old. It was my first year as a professional footballer. I was very young.

I started playing when I was about 16, and I got picked for the England youth team when I was 17 because I was doing quite well. It's all spiralled from there.

I started to play at four years old. I went to Corinthians at nine years old. Then, it started to become more serious.

Clearly, if you go abroad to a top club, it means one more step in your development.

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.

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.

I got to experience soccer at the highest level at a young age; I decided I wanted to be part of that for as long as possible.

I wanted to be a soccer player; I wanted to do it at the highest level.

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.

I always thought I was going to be a soccer player, get a scholarship to college, and then join the U.S. women's team.

Ever since I was at Blackburn, when you talk about getting pro contracts I was never the guy that was talked about as, 'This guy is going to be the best player, the next best thing.'

One day, I hope I can play in MLS.

I had wanted to play for Penarol since I was a boy. When I was young, I would go to their training ground, but at 18, I left Uruguay for Argentina, and my professional career started.

My ambition is to play in the Premier League, like every player.

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

Of course you want to coach in the Bundesliga when you move into coaching.

I got a lot of games under my belt in the lower leagues, and I don't feel the Premier League or England is that much different.

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

When you talk about Brazil, we're always going to have high-level players trying to find a place to play.

When I was five, 10, 15 years old, I always dreamed of being in the best league in the world, playing with some of the best clubs.