Farrell: I wanted to be a soccer star
Colin Farrell wanted to be a soccer star when he was younger.
The 36-year-old actor - whose father and uncle were professional players for Shamrock Rovers - always dreamed of following in his relatives' footsteps but had to give it up as he wasn't good enough.
He said: "I wanted to be a footballer, but I wasn't good enough. Certainly, when I was 13 or 14, I knew for sure that I'd dropped the ball, so to speak.
"I mean, my dad was kicking a punctured tennis ball up against the wall in his back garden from the time he was four, on his own, six hours a day.
"So by the time he was nine, he was like that black-and-white footage of Maradona - he could make that ball speak. The knowledge of the game, it was so deep in the marrow of who he was.
"I just... didn't want it enough. He always used to say that to me, 'You're not hungry enough,' and he was right. But I was obviously hungry enough to get on a plane to LA."
The 'Seven Psychopaths' star - who became famous in Hollywood after appearing in UK TV show 'Ballykissangel' - initially found life in America tough due to the demanding work schedule and he says he was left "disillusioned" and "lonely."
He said: "For three weeks, I was doing six meetings a day with producers and directors; it was overwhelming, because I was only 22. When I got home, I was so disillusioned. LA can be a very very lonely town."
