Quotes About Football

He moulded me as a player by teaching me the basics, the fundamentals of football, and definitely made me the player I was until I stopped playing. That is what Van Gaal does.

Van Gaal is an honest guy and has always put Manchester United above all else.

I don't like Van Gaal, and I am sure he doesn't like me, either.

I don't really like that guy, Milner. And to tell you the truth, I don't like that guy, the defender, Van Dijk.

Van Gaal is the best coach I've had. We've got a very special relationship.

Louis van Gaal is one of the most successful managers in the world.

Van Gaal gave me all the confidence I could ask for. He made me striker, my favorite position.

Van Gaal is really a man with personality.

Louis Van Gaal is a great coach. He has inspired a lot of players to give their best, shown them how to play.

There is no club in Europe that wouldn't want Van Persie at centre-forward.

I was sad when Van Gaal left the national team, but I was also sad when Hiddink left.

You have to bear in mind where Louis van Gaal has worked before. His self-belief is bigger than Jose Mourinho's.

During the Sir Alex Ferguson years, you would see all those great players - Roy Keane, Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Jaap Stam, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Cristiano Ronaldo, to name just a few - and you'd quickly realise why Old Trafford had an aura like nowhere else.

When I was at Liverpool, I asked about Van Dijk when he was at Groningen and then at Celtic. But I was told he wouldn't be for us at the time. Van Dijk could have jumped from Celtic to a Liverpool.

The thing I remember most about Tottenham is when Van der Vaart played for them in the Champions League. In Holland, people follow Tottenham Hotspur.

I want to move to one of Europe's best clubs if I leave Rotterdam, just like Robin van Persie and Kuyt did before.

I think a player like Van Persie can play for every team because he's a top player.

Robin Van Persie is a sensational striker and one of the best in Europe.

It's what I do my entire life when I'm not doing music. If I'm in a hotel room in Sweden, or on a plane to Vancouver, I'm watching football. I'll try to talk about other stuff, too, but football is a lifestyle.

You can control your own destiny a little bit better in college. It's hard to control all the variables, especially with the salary cap and things like that, in pro football. You can't keep your team together, and you are going to have more changes all the time. Personnel decisions aren't always made by you, especially who you bring to your team.

I'm Italian and the privilege of working in my home country would fill me with pride. However, the opportunity to work in a variety of countries, learning new cultures and footballing mentalities, is also very valuable.

It's still the tradition for various football powerhouses to pay guarantees to schools with cream-puff teams to come on over to our place and submit to massacre.

In spite of reports about playing with various teams, I'm enjoying retirement with my family and have no plans to play football.

With snooker, having three months off could have a huge long-term effect on your game. It's not like football, where there's a huge margin of error with touch and passing and shooting. With snooker you're talking about millimetre precision and your technique can vary a lot if you don't retain muscle memory.