Quotes on Football

The football field was a place where I could express myself and just be me. Play the game as well as you can and that's what you're judged on. Not the colour of your skin, or your beliefs, or the conversation you have around racism.

Too many athletes are living in a tiny window. They have no vision for themselves - what they can be outside of football and what they can mean to a community. They just don't know any better. My hopes and dreams are unlimited.

[F]or the most part football these days is the opium of the people, not to speak of their crack cocaine. Its icon is the impeccably Tory, slavishly conformist Beckham. The Reds are no longer the Bolsheviks. Nobody serious about political change can shirk the fact that the game has to be abolished. And any political outfit that tried it on would have about as much chance of power as the chief executive of BP has in taking over from Oprah Winfrey.

When you go out on a football field, you are responsible for taking care of yourself. The more rules you get, the less players truly take care of themselves.

Football combines the two worst things about America: it is violence punctuated by committee meetings.

I feel I have a lot to learn from English football and I am completely open to good influences in my way of thinking football. But I also have things to give them.

Arsenal have won that advantage, nobody gave it to them. By playing fantastic football and by winning matches and by winning trophies, they won that respect that the opponent has for them.

In football, the only game I know is the 90-minutes game. It's not mind games; I don't try to do that.

The reality is he's a specialist because eight years without a piece of silverware ... that is failure.

Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.

A champion is simply someone who did not give up when he wanted to.

First become a winner in life. Then it's easier to become a winner on the field.

Football is to Texas what religion is to a priest.

As a Christian, I know my life is in God's hands. He has a plan for me. Therefore, I never worry about tomorrow or never worry about winning or losing football games. That knowledge gives me a lot of composure in tough situations.

If I had to pick my greatest strength as a football coach, I say it would be innovation.

A society that presumes a norm of violence and celebrates aggression, whether in the subway, on the football field, or in the conduct of its business, cannot help making celebrities of the people who would destroy it.

People think racist abuse stops on the football pitch, but that's just the beginning. When you go home, you are still confronted with it. Football is just a magnifying glass of the real world.

Playing football and presenting TV are totally different things, but there are similarities: it's exciting, it can go well, it can go badly... the difference is when presenting goes badly, it doesn't really affect anyone's life, whereas when you have a bad day on the pitch, it affects people's moods for a whole week.

Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.

My family was always present when I needed them and sometimes felt even stronger emotions than me.

You have to show up in the World Cup, and in the World Cup anything can happen.