Quotes & Sayings About Soccer Player

I love being an older comic now. It's like being an old soccer or an old baseball player. You're in the Hall of Fame and it's nice, but you're no longer that person in the limelight on the spot doing that thing. — Eric Idle

What I hadn't expected was to be blindsided by a history lesson that betrayed every hard-won experience I'd had as a player and now a coach at the same school I'd attended. . . Whoever was responsible for sending a championship team into virtual obscurity was either a serious egomaniac or just plain mean. It stung.

After all, wasn't the story told at today's funeral the stuff of legacies? Of school lore passed on to the next class, and the next, building institutional pride as well as magical identities that made every kid in the state want to play there? — Jo Kadlecek

I always think that I would have become an actor if I hadn't been a soccer player. — Pele

The most important thing for a forward is speed of thought. Top players read the game. — Samuel Eto'o

Some people tell me that we professional players are soccer slaves. Well, if this is slavery, give me a life sentence. — Bobby Charlton

A player who dives and wins a penalty in Portugal, or Spain or Italy is considered clever, experienced, cunning, someone who understands the game. In England a player who wins a penalty like that is a cheat. — Jose Mourinho

What is your position at the company? Right back. — Jason McAteer

The real revelation of a player's character is not in his social life but in how he plays. In my social life I can hide my real personality. — Arsene Wenger

Growing up as a kid my father was British and a soccer player. His idol was a guy that passed the ball a lot, Stanley Matthews. Our family thought if you could be unselfish your teammates would always like you. — Adam Oates

Writing a long sentence is like watching a soccer player in slow motion as he kicks the ball across the field, as I leave a trail of dots and loops behind me. — James Rumford

Substitution is a true test of strength. The real performance of a player is seen not only during playing time but also and more especially when the player is substituted. — Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

Like most ghetto kids I knew it was important to be 'somebody' so I became a good soccer player, because excelling at a sport seemed to make you special. — Vidal Sassoon

Overseas, kids grow up in a soccer culture. The German player sees the game eons above the American player the same age. — Tony DiCicco

Behind every footballing tough guy there lurks a mincing aesthete with a love of art for art's sake, football for football's sake. A win without art is somehow less than a victory; less, almost, than a beautiful defeat. In football, the romantic and the pragmatist are ever at war in the same breast. Beauty, it must be understood here, is not Barcelona's aim but their method. And last night they were ready to use this method at every opportunity - quick-fire passing of wit and purpose in the danger areas, seeking always to produce an unlooked-for player in a position of threat. — Simon Barnes

For me, he is an exceptional player. — Cristiano Ronaldo

I think Charlie George was one of Arsenal's all time great players. A lot of people might not agree with that, but I personally do — Jimmy Greaves

At a youth soccer game you'll probably hear parents and coaches on the sidelines yelling, 'Pass the ball! Pass the ball!' ... When we continually tell our young players to pass the ball, we're not allowing them to develop their full potential, especially those who have the ability to take their opponents on and beat them one-on-one. As a result, we run the risk of diminishing a player's artistry and potential. — Tony DiCicco

At nineteen I was pretty sure I was going to be a professional soccer player. At that time I played for one of the Norwegian premier leagues. But I tore ligaments in both knees, so I started studying business administration and economics and became a financial analyst, and I worked at a brokerage firm as a stockbroker. — Jo Nesbo

I don't think I'll ever feel as famous or as popular as I felt when I was a 17-year-old soccer player in Modle. Only about 20,000 people live there and 12,000 of them come to every game. Running onto the pitch each week was just the most fantastic feeling. Nothing can beat that. — Jo Nesbo

Whoever invented soccer should be worshipped as God. — Hugo Sanchez

Such a positive move by Uruguay - bringing 2 players off and putting 2 players on. — John Helm

If you want to be a professional soccer player, if you want to make the national team, you have to do everything possible to work hard. You've got to put it number one. — Carli Lloyd

The linesman flagged initially because he thought I was an Oldham player. Fair enough, I did have a replica shirt on - but I also have a big furry head. — Kevin Williams

My father was a basketball player, so I loved basketball because he did. It was a direct transference. But, more than that, basketball, in the United States at least, plays the same function that soccer does everyone else in the world. It's the sport of poverty. It's the sport born of poverty. It's the cheapest sport. — Sherman Alexie

The first task is to get to know the players really well-watching them as individuals in training and in match play-to see what is good in their natural game. Then, and only then, can we begin to outline the general tactics. — Helenio Herrera

If it is the case that you need just a first 11 and three or four more players, then why did Christopher Columbus sail to India to discover America? — Claudio Ranieri

It's my opinion that a manager must have the right to manage and that clubs should not impose upon any manager any player that he does not want. I have been left with no choice other than to leave. — Kevin Keegan

Coaching soccer, like disciplines including journalism, you'll always learn if you're open to it, you'll learn from your players. If that's being smart, fair enough. — Tony DiCicco

I'm a championship handball player. I'm a championship softball and baseball player. I used to be an extremely talented center in high school in football. I also dabbled in lacrosse and soccer. I'm really good at billiards, darts, shuffleboard. — Action Bronson

He does things I have never seen from any other player and it really is marvellous to watch. It takes a great player to grab the bull by the horns and make things happen, but he has done it repeatedly. He has been even better than people here thought he would be and that's saying something. — Cristiano Ronaldo

A distinctly ordinary player of extraordinary dirtiness. — Pete Gill

I wanted to be a soccer player. I knew that couldn't happen. — John Oliver

My dad was a football player - a soccer player - for Manchester United, and I loved playing football, but I also happened to be the guy in class who was pretty good at sight reading. My teacher gave me scripts, and I was very comfortable. — Ian McShane

I want to be one of the best players around in two or three years time, to be a decisive footballer. — Cristiano Ronaldo

Some fans keep booing and whistling at me because I'm handsome, rich and a great player. They envy me. — Cristiano Ronaldo

You look at me and judge me. And I just want to ask, for what? I am in full control. No one has a gun to my head. Why can't this be my profession,one I have chosen for myself? I tell you prostitutes are professional in their skills and practise it like the vocation of true apostles- and why shouldn't they? What's so different from the accountant or the doctor selling his time? I ended up in this profession in the same way someone might end up being a lawyer because the couldn't get into engineering or dentistry,or because they couldn't get into medicine, or even a banker who grew up telling everyone they want to be a soccer player. They do those things because that was what was available for heir talents and their circumstances at that time. But do we pity them? No, because that's lif- — Panashe Chigumadzi

Though the legs of a football coach are never so active on the field of play during playing time, his mind is the best or worse player on the pitch! — Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

When I was ten, I wrote an essay on what I would be when I grew up and said I would be a professional soccer player and a comedian in off season. — Will Ferrell

Nearly everything possible had been done to spoil the game: the heavy financial interest; the absurd transfer and player-selling system; the lack of any birth or residential qualifications; the absurd publicity given to every feature of it by the press; the monstrous partisanships of the crowds. — J.B. Priestley

At a football club, there's a holy trinity - the players, the manager and the supporters. Directors don't come into it. They are only there to sign the checks. — Bill Shankly

What I learned from directing, I learned from soccer, where it's like a coach-player relationship. — Sean Durkin

Get the best player because whether it's soccer or whether it's anything else the team with the best players wins. So focus your energy on getting the best and getting rid of the weakest. — Jack Welch

Today was about execution, period. Every single player, all of us in the dressing room right now, we're embarrassed because that's not the way we want to play soccer. — Abby Wambach

The difference between players is not always the quality but their mentality. — Rafael Benitez

When I look in the mirror, I don't see a person who's made the kind of impact that Mia Hamm made on the game. She's still my idol, the greatest player and the greatest teammate. She achieved so much in so many different ways. What she did for women's soccer can't be measured. — Abby Wambach

It is one of my biggest regrets that Niall Quinn was not here during my time ... I felt he was an intelligent player. It would have been a good combination with Thierry Henry. What I like with Quinn is if you look at the player who played next to him, he always scored 40 goals because he had a hand for his head and he just put the ball where you were. He was a team player. A top-class player makes other players look good and he had that player. — Arsene Wenger

I'm a big soccer fan, so any soccer player that I meet, I always get star struck. I've met a lot of big stars - Justin Timberlake, Michael Buble - and I don't ever get starstruck, but when I met famous ex-football players, I just got completely starstruck. — Olly Murs

I am going to be a professional soccer player. — Hope Solo

The most direct path to achievement whether you're an entrepreneur, a company executive, or a pro soccer player is to be a great performer and a great team member. This is also the secret to a meaningful career and self-fulfillment. — Maynard Webb

I usually dig the single-digit numbers, but No2 is retired. I'm going to change it up and wear No10. I'm going to wear it for Messi, my favourite soccer player. I've been playing a lot of FIFA lately and watching the games. He's the best little guy to do it and I've got to be the best little guy to do it at No10 in the NBA. That's my goal. — Nate Robinson

What happened in the United changing room has happened to me 50 times in my career. I have kicked bottles of mineral water, bags and shoes but I never hit a player. It's a question of technique, and the Scots must have a better technique. — Marcello Lippi

You know I don't think there will ever be a time when the English player is not respected, and feared, across the world of football. The English footballer is very brave and strong and committed and there is always enough high-class players in his team to cause concern in any opponent. It is a national characteristic. — Johan Cruijff

Players taught to watch the man with the ball leaves them totally unprepared for the next move, which is always dictated by a player without the ball. — Tommy Docherty

Lainey is hot in a prom queen kind of way and we used to be friends back in grade school, but that was two lifetimes ago. Now she's a varsity soccer player and card-carrying popular girl who hangs out with the kind of mean girls and douchebags who get killed first in horror movies. — Paula Stokes

As a soccer player, the goal isn't to be very bulky. It is more important to even your body out. Make sure your body is well rounded. You can't really focus on one area. Everything has to be balanced. — Jozy Altidore

Reading all the quotes in the world won't make you or me into Plato, Gandhi Or Einstein, just like watching hundreds games of soccer won't make you a soccer player or taking a yoga class will make u a yogini, or reading a golf book will make you a golfer. We need to put the Knowledge to practice and that is the challenge. Put it to work for you, make the effort to Follow Through — Pablo

I've gone from being a brilliant captain of a TV soccer team to an average rugby player on a real team. I've gotten so used to ruling the roost and just saying whatever the hell I wanted, and I had to get back to reality. — Tanc Sade

We had probably our best ever Player of the Year Dance last week. You elected Dennis Wise as Player of the Year. Dennis accepted his award mimicking Vialli, whereupon Zola shouted 'Speak English', Dennis switched to his normal Cockney voice only for Zola to shout 'You're still not speaking English'. — Ken Bates

You should want to win. I still remember when I was little. Girls would score a goal, and we would walk together, high-five, and walk back to our positions. Boys are running around, going "I'm Number One." It wasn't like that for young girls. With girls, if you miss the ball on a tackle and hit the other player, it's like, "Oh my God, I'm so sorry. — Jere Longman

Soccer and cricket were my main sports growing up. I had trials as a soccer player with a few clubs interested, Crystal Palace being one, but it was cricket which became my chosen profession. — Ian Botham

When you've got a player who does what he does at that pace this late in the game than you know you've got an invaluable talent. — Cristiano Ronaldo

Many people say I'm the best women's soccer player in the world. I don't think so. And because of that, someday I just might be. — Mia Hamm

Of course, my father was a soccer player. He used to play very good. Then, when I was young, eight or nine years old, ten years old, I just want to be like my father. — Pele

Sport can be used for messaging, for example, making the connections between shin guards or a helmet that protects you, and protection in terms of HIV and AIDS. There has also been a very active program in Africa called 'Kick Polio out of Africa,' where soccer players have spoken out in terms of polio. There is also going to be a swim for malaria. — Carol Bellamy

I'd grown up an athletic child, a competitive soccer player since age 4, with stints ranging from months to years in gymnastics, softball, volleyball. — V.E Schwab

I don't understand referees. It appears like some players can't even be touched, but in my case, everyone can hit me as hard as they can. — Cristiano Ronaldo

Let's be honest. We're not Manchester United or Arsenal, are we? — Paolo Di Canio

I didn't do anything [during the game]. I only had one shot on goal and I did not create any chances. I was horrible. Maybe I should have left the pitch earlier. — Robinho

The club continued to make significant player decisions without involving me. In the end, such a breach of trust and confidence meant that I had no option but to leave. — Alan Curbishley

If a player is not interfering with play or seeking to gain an advantage, then he should be. — Bill Shankly

Systems are made by players rather than players making systems — Theo Foley

Tony Cottee once played in all four divisions in one season. Cottee started 2000-01 at Leicester City, where he made a couple of Premiership appearances as a sub before being released to Norwich, in what was then Division One. In November the chance to be player-manager of Barnet came up and soon Cottee was playing in Division Three, but alas it did not work out. By March he was again looking for work and found it, with two sub appearances, at Millwall in Division Two. — Phil Cornwell

My father was a soccer player. All my friends played basketball though, so I stuck with basketball. — Steve Nash

Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pele. I have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a soccer player, but how to be like a man. — Pele

I feel that right from the start the players were prepared to experience catastrophic results with comments like: 'It's going to be tough and we are going to need time'. — Lilian Thuram

As a soccer player, I wanted an FA Cup winner's medal. As an actor you want an Oscar. As a chef it's three-Michelin's stars, there's no greater than that. So pushing yourself to the extreme creates a lot of pressure and a lot of excitement, and more importantly, it shows on the plate. — Gordon Ramsay

Drogba is a fighter. He is the kind of player I would say 'With you I could go to every war.' — Jose Mourinho

I wanted to be a soccer player. And then I wanted to be a rabbi. — Jake Epstein

The last player to score a hatrick in a cup final was Stan Mortenson. He even had a final named after him, the Matthews final — Lawrie McMenemy

Youth soccer is big business. If I don't win, it doesn't matter if I'm developing players, my business is going to hell. — Tony DiCicco

My idol was Johann Cruyff (a Dutch soccer player) and I wanted to be like him. But when I realized that I would never be, I decided to do something else. I met the kitchen by chance and quickly became completely enamoured by it. — Ferran Adria

This is a game between players from 12 national sides, a game that if you have a friend in China, in Brazil, in Qatar ... in half the world he wants to watch. I was thinking of this game when I signed for Chelsea. — Luiz Felipe Scolari

England are very light up front. Eriksson's decision not to include Jermaine Defoe can be declared an error of judgment, regardless of Rooney's situation. The Swede should have forgone one of his nine midfield players; much will have to go wrong for Jermaine Jenas to get a game. — Matt Dickinson

We scored a goal and defended until the end with great spirit. We have a lot of young players and I hope we can keep on like this. — Lorik Cana

I had to add Oguchi into the list. After all, he's a soccer player - fittest athletes ever. At 6'4 210 pounds, he's one of the most feared men in the world's game.
I've played against a lot of massive defenders. And no one has Oguchi's strength. His shoulders and chest are so big that people confuse him with an NFL player. He can move anyone in the game with one arm, including the best strikers in the world. Guys absolutely fear him. — Charlie Davies

It takes a tremendous amount of skill to be a football player. And some of these guys have enough skills to do other sports. Soccer could be one. Basketball could be another. Things where you need incredible hand-eye coordination are always options. I think a football player would be able to adapt to a lot of sports. — Troy Polamalu

He was a player that hasn't had to use his legs even when he was nineteen years of age because his first two yards were in his head. — Glenn Hoddle

In soccer, the blindest player is the one who sees nothing but the ball. — Nelson Rodrigues

Considerable research on successful soccer players and their developmental history, affirms that a good percentage of them have spent time in isolation, working on soccer skills. — Pele

This is an unusual Scotland side because they have good players. — Javier Clemente

If you're 0-0 down, there's no-one better to get you back on terms than Ian Wright. — Robbie Earle

The Germans only have one player under 22, and he's 23! — Kevin Keegan

The first World Cup I remember was in the 1950 when I was 9 or 10 years old. My father was a soccer player, and there was a big party, and when Brazil lost to Uruguay, I saw my father crying. — Pele

Mia, what is the most important thing for a soccer player to have?" With no hesitation, she answered, "Mental toughness. — Carol S. Dweck

She must have been a soccer player or tennis or something 'cause she was definitely packing "the Serena. — G.L. Tomas

My mood, as I identify with each of my heroes, resembles what I used to feel when I played alone as a child. Like all children, I liked to play make-believe, to put myself in someone else's place and imagine dream worlds in which I was a soldier, a famous soccer player, or a great hero. — Orhan Pamuk

OK, the wonderful thing about soccer is, a football is a perfectly round object, and it doesn't make mistakes. The player using it makes mistakes. And the more you use it, the less mistakes you make. — Craig Johnston

How much soccer training is it needed to become a top player? It depends on the efficiency of your training routine. Setting long and short-term goals is a must. When planning out a soccer training regime, one must strive for realistic and consistent program that will diminish specific weaknesses. Broad versatility of soccer skills is the Nirvana of every dedicated trainee. — Pele

I used to play soccer when I was in Morocco, but I was more of a basketball player. I played high school basketball, I played AAU basketball. — French Montana

In comparison to the emotionally-charged axing of a striker, Ruud van Nistelrooy, who averaged 30 goals a season, even the sale of David Beckham for, in Real Madrid's opinion, "peanuts", and the never-explained departure of Jaap Stam appear to be the rational acts of a sage and far-sighted manger. To offload a player because he could not be reconciled with a role within the squad is a failing of management. — Pete Gill