I'm not comfortable being photographed, though I accept it is part of the job.

I had my footballing heroes such as Bryan Robson and Diego Maradona but my dad was a rugby league star, and he was my real hero. But the relationship with my mum was rocky and we saw things that would affect any youngster.

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.

I've always had people come up to me to say that they admire the way I play, and then they tell me they're not United fans. That's always been nice.

As players, you just play for the club. I love Man United, I'm going to play for Man United, and that's what my focus is on.

Celebrity culture, it's everywhere, isn't it? It's reality TV, Big Brother. I didn't become a footballer to be famous, I became a footballer to be successful. I didn't want to be famous. Now people want to be famous. Why? Why would you want people following you about all day?

A lot of people don't know that my father is black