Odell Beckham Jr. talks about soccer, hamstring injury

It seems that placing Odell Beckham Jr. as a starting forward on the fictitious New York Giants World Cup team we had some fun with on Thursday turned out to be a prescient decision. Beckham told reporters on Thursday that as a teenager he turned down an opportunity to compete for a spot on the U.S. national team.

"My coach actually tried to get me on the national (soccer) team when I was like 13, 14 but to do the soccer thing you really have to go overseas and stuff like that and it was a decision at a young age that I really didn't want to leave my family," Beckham said. "It was kind of one of those things that I had to let it go even though I still think about it to this day. Soccer is my first love."

How good of a soccer player was he?

"I was just faster than everybody else. I had the moves and everything," Beckham said.

The Giants hope their first-round pick has those moves on the football field. He has not been able to show them lately, sidelined during OTAs by a hamstring issue. Beckham said the Giants were "just being cautious" in keeping him off the field and said he was "pretty sure" he would be able to participate in the team's mandatory mini-camp next week.

"I was running around today, running routes and dancing in the locker room, so I feel pretty good," Beckham said.