As a young kid, you never really understand what it takes to be a footballer: what it's like after you've won or what the changing room is like after a loss, or, as an individual, have you played a good game? Have you played a bad game?
When I was a footballer, I surrounded myself with footballers. We were all friends. But in Brasilia you don't know who your friends are. It can be a dangerous place.
I live in a bubble. Real life is the one my friends live. They've had to look for work, sign on to the dole, and emigrate. That's normal life now. My life as a footballer is not normal.
I think every footballer, after 20 years playing football, the first thing that comes to your mind is to relax.
I spend time with my family. I have got two daughters who are too young to know their Dad's a footballer. They just want to play with their Dad. I like to play golf, too, but apart from that, that's me, I'm afraid.
A pro at Bayern doesn't merely have to play football; he has a range of other appointments on behalf of the club. It all drains your energy.
I was at Boulogne, in the second team - the sixth, then the fifth division. I wasn't professional, so I kept studying because I wasn't sure if I would be able to make a living as a footballer.
I found it difficult when I first started to travel around the world as a footballer. Hotels go from places you are excited to stay in to places you get tired of pretty quickly.
It's hard to know when to call it a day as a footballer.
Most of the youngsters I grew up playing with do not have a career in the game now. Sometimes people think it is easy to be a footballer, but it is hard work that never stops.
At a club like City, there are things in the papers and talk all the time. Ever since I've been a footballer, I have coped with that.
I have always said you only get one shot in life as a footballer.
I'm still a fanatical fan of Porto, and I always will be, but a footballer's career is short, and I have to make the most of all the opportunities that I get.
