Landon Donovan

Do I feel pressure being a young player with high expectations? Nah.

If I look back after 10 weeks and say I really want to stay then maybe I can make that happen. If I say OK it was good, but I'm ready to go then I can go, but for now I'm taking it week by week.

I\'ve never asked a player if they would sign my shoe. I\'ve certainly had players come up, even before the game has started, and say, \"Hey, after the game, can we trade jerseys?\" It\'s kind of like, \"Well, let\'s get through the game first and we\'ll deal with that later.\"

There have been weeks when I\'ve not been hydrating properly or not eating properly or training too hard. When I do that, I don\'t feel good. It has to be the exact formula.

That\'s a part that\'s always a challenge for athletes: trying to keep the passion alive while knowing it\'s still your job. There\'s no question that at some point, probably sooner rather than later, I\'ll be pretty burned out. And when that time comes, then I\'ll take a step back and take a look at it and see if I want to keep going.

I think it\'s probably a good lesson for other people to follow - to not always make the decision that\'s popular for others, but to do what you feel like is the right thing to do.

I would probably say that being a commissioner in sports is one of the hardest jobs in the world.

If you\'ve followed my career at all, you will know that I perform best in comfortable surroundings. Though other leagues may seem more enticing to other players, it\'s something I\'m just not interested in doing personally.

Men are sort of doofuses about sunscreen, and for the most part, women are more inclined to take better care of themselves, but a reminder is always good for everyone.

I\'m a little skeptical of foreign coaches in our league and in U.S. Soccer just because of how different our league is and our players are than other players around the world.

I\'ve always been active - outdoors, on the beach, playing - and so to go home and have to sit on my couch and relax... it\'s frustrating. Sometimes, you just have to really shut yourself down.

I think where we\'re still a little bit behind some other countries is just our pure soccer knowledge and our savvy on the field. That takes time and generations that have watched soccer growing up, played the game growing up.

It\'s got to be harder in real life to win a World Cup. But depending on if you play World Class level on FIFA, it\'s going to be difficult to win in the video game, too.

My guess is that if David Beckham wants Ronaldo\'s jersey, he\'s going to get it.

I\'ve always thought it would be interesting to give insight on soccer because I have a lot of experience in my career.

I like teff, an Ethiopian grain. It\'s not so popular in the States yet, but it\'s really good, almost like a porridge. And I love sushi, but it\'s not always that healthy, so I don\'t keep it at home.

I remember - when I was little, I remember playing \'Tecmo Bowl,\' and I would be so excited to be Bo Jackson in the game that I wanted to watch him play in real life.

I grew up playing video games. And the cool thing about the EA Sports games is they took me through the whole motion-capture thing, where they put little sensors on my body so the video game really is me. It actually moves the way I move.

Fortunately, I don\'t spend too much time reading or worrying about what people have to say, but the goal for me throughout this whole process - throughout my whole life - is to try to be happy.

I don\'t think in terms of legacy or that kind of stuff. I\'ve always thought that\'ll take care of itself if I did everything right on a day-to-day basis.

My brother and I have always had this theory that, as stupid as it sounds, in video games, there is a certain hand-eye coordination and a thought process that you can learn.

You put a lot of pressure on your defenders to be able to hold the fort when you go forward.

Unfortunately, I think there\'s not enough education about hydration. When I was young, we knew nothing about it. We all know that there\'s cases of athletes having serious issues because of dehydration and even dying.

I have to be able to be honest and be credible, and I think I can say, \'This guy did not have his best game today\' rather than, \'He is awful and I cannot believe he did that.\'

A lot of times I watch sporting events, and there are things I want to say and things I see that don\'t get said or talked about.

I think all players reach a point in their career where it\'s natural to lose some of that hunger, that desire, to sort of break out or be a star.

You got me: I do Pilates. I love Pilates because we do very specific training in soccer for the same six or seven muscles, but we neglect so many other muscles. So when I do Pilates, it helps get all the rest of the muscles in shape and gets them working together.

When people say \'American soccer,\' they think of the U.S. national team. But American soccer also includes Major League Soccer, and until we have a league that produces players at the rate other leagues around the world do, I don\'t believe we\'ll ever get to where we want to be.

I talk periodically with the producers at EA and I try to be as honest as possible because as great as EA does, you just don\'t want to hear good things. These people are really passionate about making games and making them as realistic as possible.

I got to say \'Hi\' to Dolly Parton, which my mom thought was kind of cool.