When I played for the Basel youth team, I also worked in a sweet shop.

I am the opposite of someone who is not professional.

I'm very proud with how my story has gone. I've played for some very big teams, and it is not normal how I got there. It is a dream for every player to have this kind of career, so I am very proud of this.

You have competition all over the world, not only in football, in normal life, too. Everyone fights for his place, but in the end, we have many games to play, and everybody is going to play games.

And when I go around and talk to schools, what I tell the kids are, first of all, you have to accept each other's differences. Some of you are going to be a crappy football player, some of you are going to be a great mathematician. Whatever it is, accept each other's differences and help prop each other up.

When I look back at football, I've always said to myself, 'I'd rather leave the game and have something in my tank rather than have left all of me out on the field.'

Football is like war. It's about taking territory.

No professional athlete likes to admit that he has played too long. There is too much money involved, rarely enough saved, and there is the eternal hope that age has not withered skills.