Quotes About Recognition

I think being world number one and world champion, pressure comes with that.

I'm going to be world champion and have a belt, and people will correctly be able to say I was the best instead of I was very good.

It sounds strange to be world champion at the Crucible.

I've been through so much damn adversity, I've had so much critiqued on me. From being the undefeated world champion to never really getting the love or the respect I feel I deserved when I was on top and then finally getting knocked down and then everybody jumping on top, trying to kick me while I was down.

When we left Mumbai to play in the World Cup there were hardly any journalists to see us off. But when we returned to India on July 25 having made the final, there were close to a hundred journalists at 2.30 in the morning. It was totally new.

When you win the World Cup, you start to become a legend - for the people around the world, you are different.

My best years were 2010 and 2011, and the 2010 World Cup was the most incredible experience. Our tiny nation reached the semi-finals, I finished joint-top scorer in South Africa, and my goal against Germany was voted the best of the tournament. I was also named the best player of that World Cup.

People have been very quick to judge young black players on their lifestyles and then when they go on to win the World Cup, to take league titles or score goals they're all of a sudden changed men. They haven't changed, people are just choosing to see them in a different way.

If there are watching, for the World Cup final, 500 million people or something like that, and 100 million for a women's final, that's a difference. So it's not the same.

After winning the World Cup and the European Footballer of the Year award too, I do not think I can ask for anything else.

Everyone looks at who is playing a World Cup. If a player you do not know makes a good impression at the World Cup, you'll notice him more afterwards.

Of course Lothar Matthaus is always going to be associated with the 1990 World Cup. But does everyone immediately remember what titles Gunter Netzer, Johan Cruyff or Luis Figo won? Or do they also think about how those players played their football and how they led their teams?

Sometimes I forget, then suddenly I find myself thinking, 'God - I won the World Cup, didn't I?'

Sometimes you decide games, but you can't decide a competition. So, Messi's merit is not undone because he hasn't won a World Cup.

I have scored some big-time goals. I've done well in Algarve Cups. I've done well in World Cup and Olympic qualifiers, Olympics. In big games when we're playing top-five teams. But yet, you never see my face or my name out there. And it has frustrated me my entire career.

Well, we've made huge strides since the 1990 World Cup, USA '94, and obviously since '98. Unfortunately, those strides only register with the public once every four years.

I want to be more than just some guy who played in a World Cup final.

I would like to wish the England squad every success. I would also very much like to extend those wishes to Martin Johnson, Brian Smith, Mike Ford, John Wells, Graham Rowntree and the rest of the England 2011 World Cup management team who have been fantastic and deserve people to know that.

They knew who I was in Australia in 2006, but not to a great extent. Now, with the momentum of a second World Cup, it has gone crazy.

Dennis Bergkamp is, in my eyes, still 'The Master'. The fact that he never won the Champions League, the European Championship, or the World Cup does not take anything away from his greatness as a player.

I think it's pretty crazy when I walk down in the airport and a 12-year-old boy comes up to me and says, 'Hey, I watched you at the World Cup. Great game! Great job!' I love that.

Til the day I didn't play under-19 World Cup, nobody ever celebrated my birthday. And the moment I played for Indian team, my family got excited and ordered and cut a cake for me in front of 40-50 family members.

I want to continue to win things, hopefully something with England, and if I can score the winning goal at the World Cup, then maybe they will like me again.

To be able to earn what Cristiano earns, I would have had to have been the best player at the World Cup or won the Ballon d'Or.