Quotes About Football

When you play football, you want to see something like a trick play or something that is very exciting. You want to give the crowd something to be happy about.

You're convincing these big, tough football players to wear what was essentially women's lingerie. There was a little bit of a Jedi mind trick that needed to take place. The product really spoke for itself once guys felt it and touched it.

I played football for 12 years, but I would always trick myself into exercise, like by taking a dance class.

Football is all about repetition. The trick for a coach is to be innovative when you ask for it.

The biggest thing in terms of route running for me is knowing what the defense is in, knowing the coverage. Once you know the coverage, now you can start manipulating the defense. You can start to kind of trick them in where you're going to go and where you want to get open.

When I was in the academy I might have done a little trick here or there or a step-over, but as you get older I learned in the Championship, my first real experience of it, they don't always come off and experienced players are going to read it.

Football, particularly Brazilian football, is about being happy, and that's what tricks do. It's part of our culture, at the end of the day, though, it's all about winning.

I'd call myself a street footballer, that's where I learned my tricks, and through football I looked at the big players, I think it really helped me.

When I was younger I just played football for the fun of it, scoring the maddest goals and trying to come up with new tricks but when you've got to take yourself into a proper match, you've got be serious.

I like tricks; I like to dazzle. Dribbling and leaving your opponent on his backside is what life is for. If I achieve what I want to, then I'll mark a distinct era in football. I'm the Che Guevara of modern soccer.

I think you have to go deep into the bag of tricks, so to speak, to try and slow down the quarterback.

These technical flicks and tricks come naturally to me and I don't really think about them. I did a backheel against Udinese and the coach would've strangled me if he could have!

I like entertaining football but, at the same time, you can't concede goals. That's a tricky balance to find.

The game has given me so much, and I tried to give so much back to the people who have showed me so much love day after day.

The book is actually called 'A Mentor Leader, a Different Way to Lead.' It really talks about my experience in the way I tried lead our football team, things that I learned from, basically, the coaches that I played for and my parents about leadership. And it is a little bit different, counter to maybe what society says about great leaders.

Over the years, I've tried to express myself through my feet, which have made everything simpler for me ever since I was a child.

I never had anything against Arsenal, but when I joined Spurs I tried to learn about the club's traditions and I soon found out about the magnitude of the match.

People have tried to push me into other sports, but it's always been football.

Chelsea and Arsenal tried to sign me when I was 13, 14.

I always tried to defend high up the pitch, to be in the opposition's half and play the game there.

The name of the game is 'kill the quarterback.' Every football team tries to knock the guy out of the game that's handling the ball.

I'm not a labels type of guy, so every time my coach tries to call me a safety, I correct him and tell him I'm a hybrid.

The football in Spain is more about skill and technique. Every team tries to play good football. The physical side, with plenty of running and hard tackling, plays more of a role in the Bundesliga.

One player who gives me a lot of advice at Real is Pepe. He's taught me never to give up. He always gives 100 per cent on the pitch and he tries to instil that winning mentality in me.