Why I love... football

Tennis great John McEnroe reveals his love for the game his fellow Americans call soccer.

I used to play American Football, but I got the wind knocked out of me so my parents suggested soccer would be a preferable solution.

I played it through high school and realised what a great game it is.

As you play tennis around the world you realise how big football is in other countries - all the European players talked incessantly about it.

It helped my tennis out, all that running around getting my legs stronger. Before I came to Wimbledon in 1977, I spent more time playing soccer in the winter and the fall than I did playing tennis!

I'm a pretty mediocre left winger, but as you can imagine from my tennis style, I like to attack and score goals.

I never got sent off when I was playing back home, but if I'd gone into football instead of tennis, I imagine I would have probably had at least a yellow card by now.

My favourite team is probably Manchester United, but I'm hoping the US national team can get its act together.

I keep hearing how many kids are playing the sport, but we don't seem to be getting any better at the top level, which is quite frustrating.

At least we qualified for the World Cup. Hopefully we can get past the first couple of rounds, although we seem to struggle against the teams in the later stages.

Maybe we're not good enough, but I don't see why we can't do it. After all, in the Seventies, who would have thought a Swedish man would win five straight Wimbledons?