Danny Welbeck Quotes

I only started playing top football when I was 17 and a half.

Nowadays, of course, flesh peddlers and scouting services identify the best athletes when they are still in junior high. Prospects are not allowed to sneak up on us.

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

I want to do what I can to give the next generation of athletes added advantages in the game.

I started playing for a team called Cosmos in the Tandridge League before I went for a two-week trial with Palace. They must have liked what they saw.

Real Madrid are always after the best talent.

Coaches from Celtic actually came to my door but I wasn't interested. I thought I'd get lost in the system. I wasn't ready for it.

My PE teacher used to scout for Sporting and, when I was nine, he recommended me for a trial. From there, I just went up through the age groups and was always kept on while others were dropping out.

When you are 14, 15, 16, you can train every day in France, and sometimes you can train twice a day.

My job is to bring in players I think can help this team, regardless of where they're playing.

My kids are little athletes.

I would love to be a professional athlete. When I was living in Mexico as a teenager, I did seven years of gymnastics and went to the Junior Olympics. I was getting to the level of going to the international competitions, but I was only 14, and my parents were really worried because they did not want that to be my life.

Kids can have great passion and great ability but if you have the facilities for your particular sport that can give you the inspiration to become a sportsman.

There are great amateur bodies that have good programs right from the grassroots level to professionals.

We should not go to a baseball rule. If a kid goes to college and, after a year or two, wants to go to the NBA and is good enough - and he grew, he got bigger, he got more confidence - let him go. Why would you now force a kid to go two years?

I still believe it is important that children have a chance to play other sports because they all offer learning experiences. Soccer is a growing sport and would be a good complement to hockey.

The Women's Sports Foundation has empowered so many young girls and women across the U.S. I benefitted from WSF with a travel and training grant when I was 12 years old. It really helped my family financially.

I wish I had more opportunities to play for Canada when I was younger, but pros just never had the chance in those days. It was just set up that way.

You can't go to college and develop into an Olympics champion. It takes too much time, too much training.

I think I could take a job as an NFL scout.

Among the clubs that most wanted to recruit me were Marseille and Leicester.

If it wasn't for Paul Brown, I probably wouldn't have a job because he basically evolved scouting.

Honestly, I was a troublemaker. The environment I grew up in, my mom and my sister, they decided they were going to sign me up in every single thing to keep me busy. I played football, basketball, baseball. Anything, whatever was in season, I was signed up for it. Basketball was one of the things that just stuck.

When you go through the youth system you're always going in to do analysis work, looking at every way of improving and your coaches are always on top of you.

I didn't do any football stuff when I was a kid... Mostly baseball and basketball the whole time. That's all I did. I played football starting in seventh grade. As I got older, I started playing a little bit more. Then in high school, I really fell in love with it.