Alvaro Morata Quotes

My father got me involved in the game when I was four years old.

When I can 10 or 11, my mom was the one out there catching passes for me. She was my prime receiver.

My dad was my coach in baseball and early on in basketball, so playing baseball was something we always did.

From the age of seven, I basically started practicing my hand-eye and foot coordination, balance, strength, endurance, discipline, and mental toughness three days a week until I was about 15.

It's a real strength for me that I've never minded the training process. It's something I enjoy. I really like being in the gym or, certainly, on the field.

She was the one getting me to practise football. My father has helped in other ways but my mum was the one grabbing the ball and telling me: 'Come on! Let's practise now. Let's go. Right, right, left, left.'

My dad has been my coach since I was seven years old - from 7 to 18 is when he coached my club team - and so it was always in the family. He introduced me to soccer at a young age and also kind of molded me into a good player at a young age, too. Which then I grew to love the game and be as passionate as he was.

My father drove a bus in Anderlecht and he took me to training every day in Brussels from when I was 11 to 18.

I think that's vitally important, that we get players playing at a younger age group.

My brother and I used to laugh and say, 'Normal kids went to day care, and we went to the gym.'

When I started training at the age of eight, my dad used to encourage me.

When I was eight, I went into a football school in my neighbourhood, and we played five a side on a little court.

My earliest childhood memories are of my dad putting a basketball in my hand and playing with me in our backyard.

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.

I attribute being a good center fielder to many things, but being outside with friends as a kid, running around and racing, that was a big part of it.

We all played sports, my brothers, my daddy, my uncles. That's all we had.

Africa has proven to produce some of the greatest athletes in the world, and it's a joy to be able to help grow that talent and create a space for African youth to learn.

I was introduced to the game by my father, Tommy, when I was 11.

When I was growing up, I always liked playing football, and my mum always took me to football games. I owe her a lot. She was my pillar. She was the biggest influence on me.

I'm always training to be quite honest, but there are those moments when you're a little more out of shape than you should be.

When I was a kid, we used to play this thing called 'the writing game' with our father. My brother and I would play it - where first person writes a sentence, and the second person writes a sentence, and the third person writes a sentence, and so on until you get bored and have to go to bed.

Oh man... growing up, I played everything. I played football, basketball, baseball.

I started doing sports when I was 13 and competitively doing sports - where I was actually training - when I was 17.

Young boys and girls should be given the chance to play football.

My time off is usually spent working out and getting better at football. When I come home and spend time with my little brother, we're out on the football field. We're working out or playing Madden. We're spending time with each other, but our quality time is football.