The Premier League is very difficult.

Affirmative action is a little like the professional football draft. The NFL awards its No. 1 draft choices to the lowest-ranked team in the league. It doesn’t do this out of compassion or guilt. It’s done for mutual survival. They understand that a league can only be as strong as its weakest team.

You have to choose whether to take the money or follow your own ambitions, playing in the best league in the world and winning titles.

The high point of my career was winning the Champions League. No one will ever erase that from my memory, in the same way that no one will ever erase the fact that I did it in a Manchester United shirt.

Of course it’s good when you win the Champions League, the league, the golden boot. But when you win something for your country it’s completely different.

We know Mourinho can win league titles – he is brilliant at it – but how long can he do it at one club?

The way a top team develops means that once you have won the league title, the natural step is to try to win the Champions League.

Good third-down teams are teams that usually have success in this league.

When you’re in this league, you have to do something every single day.

When you’re in this league, you have to do something every single day. You have off days, but those off days are usually watching film.

Anybody with ability can play in the big leagues. To last as long as I did with the skills I had, with the numbers I produced, was a triumph of the human spirit.

It’s hard to win in the league because every team is good. It’s competitive, and that’s what I love most about it.

I wish I could play little league now. I’d be way better than before

Do I need my number retired throughout the course of the league to acknowledge what I’ve done? No.