Messi is probably the best player of the last 20 years.

I do not wish to hide my origins, nor do I seek to make it a subject of conversation. I am what I am.

I had an early taste of fame. I was 20, going out with TV presenter Dani Behr and we'd have paparazzi chasing us. I'm not comfortable being photographed, though I accept it is part of the job. I had to ask myself, 'What comes first, being a celebrity or footballer?

He was a professional rugby player in the area that I played as a youngster. So a lot of people who I went to school with knew who he was and knew that he was black. So I would get racist taunts in school.

There's never been completion in my football career because I've always been striving for that next thing.

Where I grew up, people obviously knew my dad because it's a small place and he was the top player for Swinton - they'd go and watch him play, see him in the papers, so they knew he was black.

There's never been completion in my football career because I've always been striving for that next thing. You listen to people who have finished and nothing replaces playing, but I'm still excited about not having to put my body through what I've put it through. And not feeling the disappointment that I feel.