Per Mertesacker Quotes

I don't know if I could have made it as an NBA player. But I knew I could make it as a coach.

I feel like every woman, and actually any guy who hasn't played that many sports, you secretly wonder, like, 'Would I be a pro athlete?'

If they had rankings in baseball, maybe I would have been able to do the math and figure out my chances of being a professional baseball player versus a tennis player. But that was the decision-maker for me, I just thought I was better in tennis.

By that time I was thinking a little about pro ball and hopeful that someone would draft me.

Oh, I never knew I was going to be a great player.

When I look at the way I was able to play in my 17th year, I feel like I earned the right to play in the NFL for another one.

Trying to make the NBA is one of the very few areas where a Harvard degree won't necessarily help.

I played professional level sports. When you're playing for money, it's a whole other level.

Sometimes I think if I had the same body and the same natural ability and someone else's brain, who knows how good a player I might have been.

My mother said I would have more chances to become a tennis player than a football player.

I must have made a good impression because a club official to us into his office and asked me if I would sign on for a year with a view to becoming a professional.

I still feel that in India we look upon sports as a recreational activity - which it is - but people have to understand that there is a career in sports. It's not just necessary to be a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer, as most of us Indians appear to think that our children should grow up to be.

I took a huge risk leaving baseball, because I was predicted to play in the big leagues. I'm kind of a prototypical second baseman.

Football, I thought, would be a tough sport to make a living in. There is no minor league. You either make it to the NFL or you don't.

I don't feel I could've played major league baseball.

If it wasn't for finding out that my right leg could kick a ball really far, which is what I did, I am 100 percent certain that I would be attempting to be or would be a professional wrestler.

It's either join the workforce or become a professional athlete, and I'd rather be a pro athlete.

I think, at 32, you are past your prime as a footballer.

I'm like LeBron, man. I'm like a smaller LeBron. That's why I'm not in the NBA. If I had about five, six more inches, I'd be in the league.

I could have started playing professional at 16, 17 quite easily. For my position, I was far better than a lot of people around me. All the people in front of me had was experience but, talent-wise, I easily could get in.

I've come to Milan because I think I can play; otherwise, I wouldn't have come here. I'm pleased they were interested in me.

People at school used to assume I was going to be a footballer, and it wasn't until I got to 16, when I was at Southampton, that I had a doubt for the first time in my life. Southampton said I wasn't big enough, but it was just because I hadn't grown. Simple as that.

I had a lot of doubt coming into my career about being an elite point guard in this league.

I get paid to play football and show everything I've got.

When I was growing up Harlequins were interested in signing me because I was very fast and strong at an early age, but I wasn't interested in rugby at the time.