Jay-Jay Okocha Quotes

It's disappointing to see how football, the world's No. 1 sport, is not No. 1 when it comes to development. It seems to me that a wealth of practical football knowledge is being squandered.

I think that it is advantageous to join Bayern Munich at a young age.

I learned so much during my time at United. Sharing a dressing room with Paul Scholes, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Ruud van Nistelrooy, and Ryan Giggs at such a young age was an amazing experience. I didn't play as much as I would have liked, but it was a master's degree in development both as a player and a person.

I want to help grow the game in India and encourage young kids to play football.

I'm sorry for Italian football; there's no desire to improve Italian football.

You look at a club like Chelsea, and you know it won't be easy to get into that team. Sometimes you have to go away, play regular first team football, and show Chelsea that you are ready to play for them.

There has been a great list of players who cut their teeth in Europe.

I would like to think that if I stop playing in three, four, five years time, whatever it may be, that I would still be involved in football and still have that as my profession. It is my passion and what I know.

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

Tottenham is the club that first gave me my opportunity to play in one of the strongest leagues in the world.

I would advise that if you can get out on loan and play football, it is the best path to go down.

Profit and fame will not develop Indian football. Professionals, technique development, legacy specialists, and experts in football business, will develop India as football country.

Me being at Coventry, instead of a big Premier League club, probably helped me develop. You don't get put in the academy system, playing Under-18s and Under-23s.

I got my first taste of real professional football on loan at Northampton. I was 18 at the time, and I played only nine games, but it was a massive opportunity for me.

For the fans, for the club, for the young players, I want to show there is a pathway at Fulham for young players to go through in the first team.

Germany, when you're a young player, is the best. There are lots of young talents here, and people have faith in them.

I had the best job in the NFL.

I'm very fortunate to have worked at two unbelievable clubs, Manchester City and Barcelona, and I feel like I've really changed the way I look at football from being around and in those environments, so I feel really privileged.

I don't know if my perspective is different because my dad played but I've always admired footballers: second division players, second division B players.

It was through the Hammerheads that I got a route into the professional game, via a trial at Sunderland from Mick McCarthy and then an invitation to come back to Carlisle in 2004.

In India, the key is to start at the base and start very young. We need professionally trained talent, talent that wants to make football their career, and people must see football as a strong professional career option.

My father has played at Celtic before. He has told me it is really intense, and it is good to grow as a footballer by playing for this club.

I started lower down the leagues with Coventry, so I'd had that taste of first-team action at a young age. I'd already played 40 or 50 games before moving on, and when I got to Norwich, I had to bide my time at the start.

Life in the NFL is an adjustment.

When I left Carlisle United for the first time at the age of 16 in 2000, I hated football.