Carles Puyol Quotes

I used to love playing football in high school. I played with the same guys for 10 years.

We used to play touch football, where you put the little rag in your pocket. I was good because I was fast. I wasn't the greatest at catching. Sometimes the ball would come so hard and fast that it'd knock the wind out of me.

I wasn't a goalkeeper until I was 13 or 14 so before that, my heroes were the likes of Paul Scholes and David Beckham, but since becoming a goalkeeper, I've obviously trained with Joe Hart.

When I was little I got to dribble the ball around while my older brother Paul, who played for a long time for Kilmarnock, my dad and my uncle Jimmy - who was at Celtic as a kid and played with Morton and Cambridge City - kicked it hard and I got punted out the way. But gradually I got allowed into the game.

I love playing football, being out on the pitch with a ball, and I will be a little sad when that ends.

When you're a kid that's all you want to do, go out and play football.

I played football. I wrestled. Those were team sports and I played for the school. When I was younger, I played kick the can and stuff like that. I loved that.

I have been playing football since I was 7.

I grew up a huge jock, a lot of basketball and football. We had a pond in my back yard growing up, and we played a lot of hockey, too. I loved to score goals.

I grew up an athlete, growing up in Pittsburgh. I played basketball. I played football. I played a little bit of baseball in my earlier years.

I'm enjoying playing football, and as a footballer, that's what you want to do, and that is exactly what I've been doing.

I used to go with my father to practice on the village pitch and with my friends.

Ever since I was in the youth team at City, I've always loved crossing the ball.

As a little kid, I wasn't even interested in football. The first time I played, I was nine, and I volunteered to go in goal, thinking it would be exciting to save penalties. In fact, it was really boring.

When I was little, I always loved scoring goals.

When I was growing up, I played football, I loved football.

As a goalkeeper, I talk a lot to my fellow players on and off the pitch.

My childhood was a happy one. I was captain of the school sports team and played cricket after class. I had five younger siblings and a large loving family that lived together. We are still very close.

I played a lot of sports growing up. I played soccer.

The best thing about having a footballer dad is seeing the game up close. You watch him train, then go home and practice what you've seen in the front room, rearranging the furniture.

Throughout my life, ever since I played for Clausenengen back home, instead of listening to the teacher at school, I was writing down all the chances I missed in a book thinking 'I should have done this.' Scoring goals was all I thought about.

Football is a simple game. It's just very hard to play it simple.

I played a ton of team sports growing up, and team wins are just incredibly gratifying.

You may get skinned knees and elbows, but it's worth it if you score a spectacular goal.

My father was a really good athlete, so his pop-ups really were sky high. Eventually I learned how to judge them properly and catch them well. It was great training for when I started to play on teams, which I did all through school.