People often ask me how I got so well-rounded in soccer. You might expect the typical answer, such as years of practice and high quality training in the Netherlands. Or simply the experience of having played my whole life. Years ago I might have assumed the same, had I not carefully thought about it first. But

I was born in America. Greenwich, Connecticut to be exact. But I grew up in Holland, in a city called Haarlem. Haarlem is where Harlem in New York gets its name from. Just like New York used to be called New Amsterdam. Haarlem is a beautiful place: Similar to Amsterdam but without all the tourists!