Straight Talk from the world's Greatest Soccer Player!!

I sometimes think that I am not the man that people say I am. I am sure of one thing - I am not alone. I owe what I am today to many people. They all, in their different ways, taught me something. I only became what I am today because I was helped, encouraged, advised, taught, stimulated and criticized. I have accepted the ball that was passed to me and I have taken it a little bit further through my personal experience which has lasted seventeen years. In this way I am trying to give the future generations, especially the young who are just starting to love life and sports, a sort of inheritance of soccer technique. This will include basic moves in soccer such as passing, kicking, 'killing the ball', heading, etc. I don't believe there is such a thing as a 'born' soccer player. Perhaps you are born with certain skills and talents, but quite frankly it seems impossible to me that one is actually born to be an ace soccer player. Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do. It is because of this that I decided to help youngsters with my experience. In life none of us is alone. We are always part of a team and each one has his own special function. Every individual is important. Soccer is a sport which consists of simple ingredients. We often forget this simplicity. the fundamental components of the game. This simplicity helped me to understand soccer. Although we do not know the actual origin of soccer, we do know certain things about its history. The game as it is today evolved very gradually and a form of soccer is said to have been played many centuries before Christ. In China a game resembling soccer existed as long as 2500 B.C. Egyptian pictures show people playing a game like soccer. But it was actually in Greece that a definite game began which eventually had a name - Spiskiros. Soccer officially arrived in Brazil in 1894. It was introduced by Charles Miller, a Brazilian of English parentage. There is no need to tell you that soccer spread in Brazil and throughout the rest of the world. Neither I who was playing, nor those original founders of soccer, could have imagined that 800 million would see the memorable game between Brazil and Italy in the 1970 World Cup Final! More people today play this universal game than any other sport. It is because of this that I have been given the opportunity of traveling to every corner of the world. I now want to share with you the experience I have gained from these marvelous seventeen years. The most important thing I have learned is that essentially sport is the best medium through which we can communicate. I saw the world because of soccer and got to know things and, more important, I got to know people. All these people that I have met have made me have faith in the future of mankind. I believe that one day we will be able to unite in a team, a greater team called humanity.