“It’s not easy when you come in as the highest-paid player and you’re 14.”

“My image is very important to me. I want to bring a good face to my family. That’s the way I’ve been raised.”

“It’s awesome where I am right now. It’s a lot of people’s dream. I’m going to take full advantage of it.”

“This is unbelievable to me. I always wanted to be famous, be the best, but I didn’t think it would be like this.”

“I need to have the ball at my feet. That’s when I know anything is possible.”

“My only real job is to play well and do my job on the field. If I do that, all the other stuff will take care of itself.”

“I’m not here to be the savior of American soccer.”

“When I’m out on the field, I’m not scared of anyone.”

“I’m not worried. My time will come.”

“Sometimes I feel like my childhood has been taken away from me just a tiny bit. But if you want to achieve your goals, you have to sacrifice some things.”

“I do stuff that I don’t even know I can do sometimes.”

“A lot of people have been hyped up to be great but just disappeared. I promised myself I wouldn’t be one of them.”

“I see myself in a World Cup final for the U.S.A., playing against a top-notch team everyone picks to win.”

“I love having the ball at my feet and running at the defender one-on-one. That’s when I’m at my best, when I can pull some weird move and get by him and everyone goes, Ohhhh. I love that.”

“I haven’t done anything yet, but I want to be the best in the world.”

“That’s the dream. Being on the U.S. National team and winning the World Cup. I’ll take the win anyway I can get it.”

“When I grow up, I want to be Freddy. I want to be one of the greatest players ever to play the sport, but that’s a long way off. I’ve got a lot of work to do on that.”

“Sometimes I even amaze myself, and sometimes I do things that make me want to punch myself in the face.”

“I’ve got a long way to go. I’m not in a hurry.”

“Obviously it's an honor to be put in the company of Tiger Woods and LeBron James because these are two guys who are good at what they do. I just try not to get too caught up in it. I just play and let the people keep talking. All you can really do is just play and try not to let it get to your head.”

“I want to be good at what I do, obviously, and to do that I need to keep my head straight.”

“I would love to play for Real Madrid. And I want to win a World Cup for the U.S. so bad. When the women won it, everybody went crazy. I would love to be part of something like that.”

“I need more time to develop as a player and as a person.”

“Once your name gets out, people just want to crack you.”

“There are some casual fans who think you’re going to dominate a game, be magic, score 10 goals. Even if you dominate a game, you’ll only score two or three goals.”