I'm lucky to have played two different positions. But of course the experience I gained as a full back - knowledge of defending, and taking up the right positions, helps me as a midfielder.

As a full back, your role is just as much in playing in midfield, getting forward and creating chances, as it is stopping them at the other end.

Maybe modern tactics mean that making the switch from defence to midfield is easier. Many years ago, full backs were more limited - you were just supposed to defend, and it didn't matter if you could get forward too.

The title I most want is the 2014 World Cup.

Winning the Bundesliga is never a given.

Even if I won so many titles, the first title is not forgotten.

As a captain, I have to be courageous but I also want to be nice off the pitch.

At the start of every season, I always asked myself - am I meeting my own standards? Can I still do it? I didn't want to come to the conclusion that I couldn't during a season.

Thomas Muller is an excellent player.

Schweinsteiger has always been an important player for the national team.

Every Bundesliga match is a new challenge, our opponents don't make it easy for us.

Of course it's not a normal thing to show a good performance every time.

In a World Cup you always intend to compete with the best.

Personal vanity has no place in a World Cup.

Generally I always take genuine criticism. It's part of football.

I have a clear goal: the greatest possible success, the World Cup trophy.

Fear mustn't take control of us.

We have big goals at Bayern and always want to go as far as possible in each competition and win silverware. But it is great to have won the World Cup. You are a world champion for your entire life. A lof of people talk about it and it remains very special. But it's not like I think about the World Cup each morning I wake up.

I do a lot of things instinctively.

It doesn't matter if you have the best individual players, as you need to have the best team unit.

I'm from Munich. I was born here in this town.

We can never achieve perfect football at Bayern because the game is always changing. There are always new influences and different styles.

When I think back to the 2006 World Cup on home soil, we came close but nobody really expected us to get very far. We simply lost to a better team and Italy went on to win it.

Germans have a rich history of playing well in the World Cup.

Anybody who has played with Mesut will tell you how intelligent he is as a player. His vision is probably the best I have ever seen and that is why it is so important to have the right striker ahead of him.

Things can happen very quickly in football.

What is a Fuhrungsspieler? I don't like the term. For me there is not a clear definition of the term.

Why was Effenberg a leader, because he was outspoken? Or because he had a certain presence on the pitch? When that's the criteria, OK, then maybe I have a different definition of what a leader is.

Was Effenberg a leader because he projected presence or because he had a presence? There is a difference.

You only miss many chances when you create many chances.

Scoring first changes everything. It makes everything easier for us.

It is something special when you play a final at home in your own stadium.

We know South Americans are impulsive and temperamental and cannot lose.

I spend too much time sitting in an office. So I need to play sports on a regular basis, that's why I play golf and tennis.

Pep is a super coach! He is excellent. He is the best at analysing an opponent and the concept of a game. I don't know what impact he had on German football, but he left a mark on all of us at Bayern because of how he analysed and educated the players in each position and the way he taught us to play.

Bayern Munich is an attractive club because it has been successful for many decades.

Anyone who knows me knows that I stick with my decisions.

I've always said that there will never be an area that I know better than football.

Both football and business are part of my life.

I had a very interesting and exciting life as a footballer, for which I am grateful.

I have always enjoyed thinking about playing patterns and I will undoubtedly continue to do so in front of the TV but to become a coach, to be thorough in football at all times, to prepare matches and training... I cannot imagine that I would find pleasure there and pleasure is essential in football.

Always being champion, always being at the top every three days, playing great football - it's not that easy.

My first goal was to become a professional footballer.

Being Bayern captain feels good and I think it's logical a player from Munich should lead FC Bayern on to the pitch.

My first club was FT Gern. I joined through my parents and friends. My father played for them and a friend from nursery school took me to training once. I was five at the time.

I've always said I prefer playing on the right. But I can play at a top level on both sides so I'm happy to play wherever the manager thinks it will bringing the team success.

The key is developing your game in both directions: in the build-up, joining the attack at the right moment and also in defence. You have to win the one-on-one situations and need the required pace and technique. These are the decisive factors for a defender.

I'll remember my first league title, my first cup, the Champions League. But also the defeats - that's also part of football.

The Champions League is such a tough competition.

If you don't score when you have chances then things start to get difficult.