Quotes About Soccer

It's a lot tougher to play soccer and make it look believable. But in boxing, it was easier for me. I got injured a lot more in the soccer world. In soccer, I pulled muscles. I thought boxing was going to be tougher.

The toughest defenders I've faced are Alessandro Nesta, Paolo Maldini, Ivan Cordoba, Ciro Ferrara and Walter Samuel.

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

The Premier League is the toughest league in the world, so it's never going to be easy to get minutes.

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.

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

It is every player's dream to play at a world tournament.

I always look forward to playing for my national team, especially at a major tournament.

The Champions League is a really tough tournament, and every single game is really special and difficult.

I was playing in a tournament in Brazil and an agent scouted me. He took me to his soccer school. The idea was he used it to scout players and anyone he thought was good enough he took over to Italy. That's what he did with me when I was 15.

The Asian Cup is an important tournament.

I'd gone to watch Wortley play in their home tournament but they didn't have enough players so I played for them. I got scouted by a guy called Sonny Sweeney and went to Leeds City Boys.

I have played up front for England, been away to tournaments, and scored goals there, so I know once I get into those positions I will put the chances away.

The pressure on the English national team has always been very big at all the big tournaments.

I'm a Juventus fan, although I did support Chelsea for some time - mainly because of Gianfranco Zola. Zola is from the same town as my father Enzo, in Sardinia.

Like many kids, I was thrown into recreational soccer in my town, and from there, I grew to love it. Everywhere I went, I carried a soccer ball with me.

But I like Harry Kane's robustness and where Harry Kane's come from as well. He dropped down into the lower leagues and learnt his trade on loan.

Entrepreneurs who dip into soccer also keep making the same mistakes. They buy clubs promising to run them "like a business" and disappear a few seasons later amid the same public derision as the previous owners.

Apparently the Germans had a database of 13,000 kicks.

There is no evidence that having been a good player (or being white and of conservative appearance) is an advantage for a soccer manager.

Because soccer clubs are the only businesses that get daily publicity without trying to, they treat journalists as humble supplicants instead of as unpaid marketers of the clubs' brands. The media often retaliate by being mean. This is not very clever of the clubs, because almost all their fans follow them through the media rather than by going to the stadiums.

The beauty of FIFA's business is that it's a monopoly. There is only one World Cup (nobody has ever credibly attempted to start a rival event) and only one global soccer association.

In most industries, a bad business goes bankrupt, but soccer clubs almost never do. No matter how much money they waste, someone will always bail them out. This is what is known in finance as "moral hazard": when you know you will be saved no matter how much money you lose, you are free to lose money.

Not many universities, opera houses, or aid agencies say no to sugar daddies. We think European soccer needs these people.