I always loved watching the Champions League, growing up.

When I was growing up, I was focused on football and school.

No matter how good you are, your mentality has got to be right. A lot of young players, that's where they go wrong, and that's what I've always seen when I was growing up - players who are almost there but couldn't quite get there because the mentality wasn't right.

I feel I have been very lucky. When you are growing up, you have dreams of being a footballer, perhaps even playing for the club you support, and I am living that dream.

Respectable means rich, and decent means poor. I should die if I heard my family called decent.

I grew up in a pretty religious house. My family was Roman Catholic, and I couldn't wait to get away from that. But that doesn't mean I'm not a spiritual person.

Local television is still the No. 1 source for news and part of the family.

Being mixed in the South, that's a struggle that everybody deals with differently. Some people go careening to one side or the other, and some people try to walk a tightrope between the two. I grew up spending equal time with both sides of my family.