Quotes About Diversity

Over the years, we settled into American life and embraced it fully. But having come from a different culture, I didn't know the boundaries of American culture. Which is that, as a girl, you didn't play football or soccer at lunch with the boys, and to be cool, you didn't get into math Olympiad.

There's apparently soccer leagues that they've set up with young Indian girls.

The demographics of this country are changing. And the people coming to this country are soccer fans, not hockey fans.

Over the last 10-15 years, you've seen soccer finally start to grow at a fast pace, start to get the recognition it deserves, and I think it has to do with all of the people who come to America from foreign countries.

In terms of soccer, it wasn't really a thing that girls did. In England it more kind of Net Ball and Hockey and stuff like that in athletics. It's to each their own, really.

And of course in America you've got American football and baseball and all those other ball games, soccer has become a little niche that the women have kind of filled.

My background playing soccer gave me a natural advantage over many of the American-born players.

I would just as likely be doing soccer practice as filming commercials.

I don't just want to focus on soccer, soccer, soccer.

I think, really, that the only way a person can open their heart to someone who is so much another is really by knowing them... whether that's in a classroom, or a soccer team, or a food pantry, or any of those things. I mean, we're kind of more alike than we are different.

Quite frankly, I can't get enough of soccer. I tell my jingoistic friends in the United States there's a reason why it is the world's No. 1 sport. The rest of the planet can't be wrong.

No one needs to be reminded of racism in soccer: the xenophobia, the nativism and, yes, nationalism.

Baseball is like cricket, and I grew up in a country where they had cricket. So I understand cricket, soccer and basketball. I played basketball at the club level and a little bit in college, so that's why I'm a basketball fanatic.

Homophobia is rampant in soccer, probably more so than in any other sport. I'm not sure why.

I think I'm being conservative when I say there are more people playing soccer in the United States than in 90% of the world's other countries, probably 95%.

I never knew that Americans would take up soccer, and it's a gender-free sport in high school there.

As a lad growing up in the Fifties and Sixties, I played both Gaelic football and soccer and loved them both.

Ndamukong started out playing soccer, like his sister before him. She excelled at it, played for Mississippi State, made the Cameroon national team.

I feel like everyone is really craving people to come out. People want - they need - to see that there are people like me playing soccer for the good ol' U.S. of A.

I envied kids who played soccer and football, but that was not my gig.

One of the U.S. Soccer Federation's points is that it's an honour and a privilege to to play for this country, and it is. But we also represent the entire country, and the idea of liberty and justice isn't afforded to everyone.

I have been involved with U.S. Soccer for 30 years, and I don't remember one senior woman in the organization that you would deal with on a daily basis in a position that was making decisions. That is a huge issue. How many times do you hear, 'There are no women around?' Well, they are fishing in the wrong pond.

In so many ways, my soccer career taught me about seeing the value of all people, whether or not society sees it first. Relationships with people who are perceived to be 'different' have taught me the same lesson.

Girls can be funny and play sports and show how to do the perfect soccer kick if they want.