Zack Steffen Quotes

I can look forward to that. Getting back over to Europe and playing at a little bit higher level, then hopefully becoming a leader for the national team.

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

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

These countries - Spain, France, Germany - have environments that are really geared toward the professional player.

A World Cup is always a bit of a watershed for teams, so there will be new faces and players given the chance to perform at a higher level.

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

Many American players - Paul Caligiuri, Claudio Reyna, Eric Wynalda, Kasey Keller, Tony Sanneh, Michael Bradley and Steve Cherundolo, just a partial list - have sought the income and challenge of Germany.

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.

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.

Not so many Armenian players are given the chance to play in the Champions League, and this is really important for me, because I want to do everything to impress the children who are watching me playing.

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.

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.

It is an honour for me that Mainz gives me the opportunity to prove myself in another top European league.

If I couldn't get to the national team, I wanted to get as much as I could out of soccer, and I think moving abroad was my opportunity to do that. I think that, in turn, playing with that freedom and that spirit allowed me to play a lot better. I escalated my game quickly just by being happy.

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.

Borussia Dortmund was the best solution for me. I wanted to have an experience abroad and in the Champions League. Then there are the fans - it was said they always supported the team, but I didn't think like this.

I have a lot of experience at Under-21 level, so hopefully that can show in my performances.

Going to Cardiff was a really good experience for me. I managed to get quite a few games under my belt at Premier League level, which was good, and I feel like I've come back a better player.

It's not easy anywhere in the world for a young player to get opportunities at a big club.

I remember when I was in college, my junior year NWSL was not a thing and my senior year, it started up and I had a place to play now. It's really great that it's been able to be stable for these last seven years and we can always continue to push for more growth.

I want soccer to be a stable profession that attracts young female athletes when they graduate from college.

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.

It's funny: one of the strongest parts of my game today is heading, and that only really developed when I started playing at the professional level. In the youth teams, all we did was passing.

I do not feel the need to play in Ligue 1, nor in the Premier League or in Serie A.