My mother used to have a shop in which she offered very colorful clothes. I liked that from my early days on.

The moment my name was called [Africa's Footballer of the Year] was truly overwhelming and I was about to scream with joy.

At Milan when I was younger, I worked a lot on the leg press because I'd lost a bit of my natural speed as my body was changing. I was growing too fast for the rest of my body to cope and I had some knee problems. I worked really hard in the gym to regain these fast sprints.

The fans of Borussia Dortmund are truly amazing. It is hard to describe what you feel when you play in front of them, the atmosphere they create not only on the yellow wall with its 25000-something fans jumping up and down a full 90-plus minutes of every game, no matter the score or the opponent.

I've played in France. There, in many matches everybody is already happy if he can secure a point. Here, in Germany? Forget it! Everybody wants to win. The last-placed team in the standings would take any match with the ambition to win it. That makes it so hard, even for the best teams in the league.

The mentality of coaches and players alike [in Bundesliga]. It's all about winning.

When I arrive at our training ground at Borussia Dortmund, everybody could hear just that a few seconds before I can actually be seen. Everybody knows it's me. I love to hear the machine working.