Quotes from Gianluca Vialli

I knew that was going to be the last chance to play in the Champions League final - I was desperate to win, I put a lot of pressure on myself. Finally I got hold of that cup - it was the defining moment of my career. I got really emotional and nearly fainted on the pitch.

You need to be humble, play with pride but also aggression.

I really enjoyed coaching Chelsea. It was a different atmosphere with less money and a more familiar environment.

I'm here with all my faults and my many fears, but also with the desire to do something important.

The three European finals I won, I remember very well.

Finishing second and getting in the Champions' League quarter-finals or semi-finals is fine, but at the end of the day you need to take some silverware.

The defenders can be clever and use everything within the laws of the game to stop the strikers scoring goals and, while some pulling is allowed, you need to be clever.

I have been thinking quite a lot about retiring... it is getting very difficult to be both a player and a manager.

It's difficult to be both a good player and a good manager.

I played for four clubs during my career and for me it was like having four wives.

I don't like thinking 'Why me, why me, why me?' when I was diagnosed with cancer because that would be hypocritical. I didn't say 'Why me?' when I was one in a thousand who made it as a professional footballer.

Pressure is a combination of expectations, scrutiny and consequences. If the consequences are grave, then you feel more pressure and if you feel more pressure you learn how to cope with that.

You realize just by writing down everything you own that it's just materialistic stuff. We are much more than that.

I'm not 25 anymore. It takes much longer to recover now from a game than before.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood.

Maybe because he proved to his little girl that not only does Daddy never give up, he's strong enough to come back and achieve the unthinkable.

It's the inability to handle the pressure that makes a big difference between the Italian players and the England players when it comes to the World Cup stage.

Italy should learn from the English system regarding security and civility.

I've always been perceived as a tough guy.

I never meditated before. I wish I'd started when I was a footballer or more importantly when I was a manager. It might have saved me from insanity.

I hope that my story can help inspire others who are at a decisive crossroads in their lives.

Italian players go to bed and they think about the training session of that day and the one the day after.

We were all in love with the club. We went to bed with Sampdoria pajamas on, while going to the Bogliasco training ground in the morning was always a joy: the blue of the sea on one side, the green of the hills on the other. Wonderful.

I never thought that being a footballer I was invincible, I knew I was human.