Quotes About Football

The toughest away match in La Liga for me used to be the one against Osasuna.

For me, Goodison is the toughest away ground to come to. I have experienced it.

I was lucky enough to play against Maradona. He and Ronaldo, when he was at Inter Milan - they were my toughest opponents.

Messi and Ronaldo are the toughest. But I would also place Eden Hazard of Chelsea, Neymar of Barcelona, and Karim Benzema of Real Madrid on the list.

Gladbach are definitely one of the toughest opponents. They always play good football.

As a young player, I had to compete with Harry Kane - the top scorer of the Premier League - arguably the toughest league in the world, and a striker who is performing remains in the team.

Leaving Liverpool was the toughest decision I had to make in football because I was in an exemplary club, a proper football club, with a lovely and sharing stadium that meant a lot of things to me. The fans are the best in the world, no doubt about that, and I was comfortable there.

I think the toughest job in football is always to be the starter, because everybody looks to you for guidance.

I think Martin Keown was the toughest. I liked playing against him in training because I knew it was just like a game situation.

What you think you see and what you think a guy did wrong, maybe he did right. Or you see a touchdown pass, but the guy might've been wrong. Something crazy might have happened. You don't know that. That's the toughest thing when it comes to judging play on a football field.

I knew I was in charge when with the ball. But on the toughest defenders I faced, I would say that my African brothers were the ones. We have the same mentality and thought the same way. Osei Kuffour was the toughest of them all.

The Italian one is the toughest league of all for the attackers.

For me, I think the toughest player I came up against was Messi; he's out of this world, he's a genius. For me he's the best in the world, a great player and I think he's the toughest opponent I've played against.

WE used to tour quite a lot during the summer with Everton in my day.

Serie A is a great tournament with many excellent players.

For me, the Premier League is the best tournament in the world. It's the hardest; you need to be 100 per cent to play every game.

We see every game as a big game, and, as you know in tournament football, anything is possible. Each game, we want to keep raising the bar and lifting our standards and putting goals past teams.

That's what tournament football's all about. It's about finding your feet in the first game, finding what works, and gaining confidence.

You can play happy-go-lucky football against Brazil in a friendly but not in a tournament.

I want to make the Tartan Army happy and qualify for a major tournament. That's the goal.

It's great to look back at when we used to play in the neighbourhood, seeing mum shouting and also how we grew up playing in football tournaments between the estates. We'd go to another estate and play them. Also, seeing yourself progress bit by bit - those are all happy memories.

Germany are a tournament team. I don't know why that is, perhaps the mentality. We always look forward to tournaments. We also believe we can always perform well.

Of course, I want to play for England as often as I can and at major tournaments.

My goal had been to win a championship, work toward the Hall of Fame, have my jersey retired by the team and I'd go in as a lifelong New York Giant, but I'm now resigned to the fact that this won't happen.