Quotes About Football

Football became my life at five or six. The earliest memory I have is of playing in my first boots, a pair of black and white Alan Balls. It was 1970, four years after the World Cup, and I scored three goals at school.

When we play at the World Cup, any African will back any African team. Because we want to hear the different approach to African football. We want to hear that Africans can do well, and Africans do well.

I started the 1998 World Cup with Teddy Sheringham up front but always planned for Michael Owen to face Colombia in our final group game because they defended square and a quick striker would be able to exploit the space behind them.

Nobody criticised me when we qualified for the World Cup when I decided that the best shape for us going forward was three men at the back and stretching the pitch width-wise, which gives you options.

In 1982, Algeria made their first appearance at the World Cup. I believe it was the first Arab country to do so.

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.

Messi deserves to win this World Cup for all he has done for football.

I always assumed that everyone knew no country would ever be awarded a World Cup without pricey gifts exchanging hands under the tables.

I've seen elbows that broke eye sockets. I've seen a German goalkeeper just level a French guy. His teammates thought he was dead lying on the ground. This was in 1982 at my first World Cup. But a bite is outside any kind of contact collision: dirty foul play. A bite is a bite.

I am Brazilian, and that is not going to change, but I want to win the World Cup with Spain.

Of course I would have liked to have played at the World Cup, but I achieved so much in my career as a footballer that I can't have any complaints.

The reason why the entire world sits up and watches World Cup football is the intensity of involvement with which people are playing a game: just kicking a ball around, but with such skill and involvement that it is like the last thing they are going to do in their life.

Messi is a god, as a person and even more as a player. I hope that he wins the World Cup with Argentina.

You can't predict anything in football, particularly in the World Cup.

At Bayern, I was used to coming out of my box to try and clear up dangerous situations. The World Cup was just another platform, so it gave other people the chance to see me who don't watch German football.

The World Cup is the World Cup, and I'm sad I won't play in it; that's my only regret. But to play a friendly with my national team, I did it many times, so it's not something I'm missing.

Every tournament and every international game played gives you additional experience which brings you forward, both on the pitch and off it, but there is nothing more special than playing a World Cup on home soil.

Obviously, the World Cup is nice and the Euros is really nice as well, but I have always dreamed of the Champions League.

First, you have to play good football so that you get to play for a good team. Then, hopefully, you achieve such a level that you are invited to play for your national side, in time for a World Cup if possible. Then, obviously, play a good World Cup. That's my dream.

After 2012, I wanted to stop, but my father told me I had to play the World Cup. I tried to be good.

Everybody had heard the rumours that Real wanted to sign James Rodriguez after the World Cup, and I knew that they were going to sell me to make room for him.

Winning the title in my first season at City was a dream come true, but the downside was not being selected for Spain's World Cup squad.

I have dreamed of Brazil all my life. As a child, I had videos of Brazil, of their World Cup wins, of Pele, and of all the big players.

To be honest, the football and the time is going so fast. I don't want to say that I've forgotten about the World Cup, but for me, it belongs to the past. I don't have time to make a step backwards and think about the World Cup.