How did the L.A. Galaxy's dreadlocked midfielder get to be one of the top players in the world? Practice, sure, but that's obvious. This footy star found the four secrets of success in the bargain bin of Barnes & Noble.

SECRET 1: Suffering builds character.

I don't half-ass it with books, just like I don't half-ass it on the field. I read about five books a month, so some are going to be clunkers. But even if a book is horrible, I'll finish it. I like John Grisham, but I had to power through The Testament. I just started Fortress Draconis, a fantasy by Michael Stackpole, and I know already I'm going to have to push through that.

SECRET 2: Mochacchinos and Bill O'Reilly keep you focused.

On the road, we've got lots of downtime. Instead of going out and getting in trouble, I'll hole up at Starbucks with an engrossing fantasy series like George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, a thriller like Michael Crichton's Sphere or good political analysis like Bill O'Reilly's The O'Reilly Factor. Better that than reading about myself on the gossip page.

SECRET 3: Infotainment is power.

With as much world travel as I do with the national team, it's important to keep informed about other viewpoints. If I know I'm going to be in one place for a while, I'll get deep into books about its culture. Since Sept. 11, I've been particularly interested in terrorism. Steven Emerson's book, American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us, is the best I've seen on the subject. Reading Bernard Goldberg's media-insider, Bias, crystallized for me how everyone has his own agenda. I've noticed that on the field sometimes, too.

SECRET 4: Imaginary friends have your back. I loved comic books as a kid and pretended to be the X-Men all the time. Now, I'm into Robert Jordan's Eye of the World sword-and-sorcery series. Role-playing doesn't actually help my game, but keeping your imagination fresh comes in handy when you least expect it.

This article appears in the August 5 issue of ESPN The Magazine.