I have a feeling we are going to be world champions, I can't really explain why. Brazil are probably the best team in the world in terms of individual players. But the team with the most gifted players do not always win.

I would never have thought I was capable of sitting on the bench as the number two man. And it showed me that you can really achieve everything in life, even the unthinkable, as long as you're willing to work on yourself a little bit.

It took me a long time to realize that football isn't martyrdom, but a game that's enjoyable, and one in which getting better at it is supposed to be fun. Perhaps it would have been better if I had understood this as a young man.

We are Bayern Munich and English teams always have trouble as soon as they leave the island.

I was so obsessed with football that you could say I was taking the goal home with me at night. And then one day the system fell apart.

I think Neuer changed the game of goalkeeping in the World Cup.

I have always seen myself as an athlete. Of course, I made the mistake of unintentionally opening the door to my private life by just a crack. I wouldn't do the same thing again. It has to be accepted that my private life is private, and if that isn't the case, I have to do something about it.