Last Updated: October 23, 2022 by Quote.cc Team
All across the globe, soccer is massively popular. It is the most popular sport worldwide. Almost half the population of the globe can be considered soccer fans. While football, basketball, and baseball are massively popular in America, soccer is widely beloved worldwide.
The first appearance of a football can be traced back to the 10th century A.D. Back then, stuffed animal skins were used for different military training purposes. Later, the same skins slowly became part of a recreational sport that shared many similarities to modern-day soccer.
England is considered the motherland of association football (soccer). Back in 1863, the basic rules of soccer were written down in the United Kingdom. The game is played between two teams consisting of eleven soccer players. The game is played on a rectangular field and is officiated by a referee with the help of two linesmen and a fourth official.
Soccer is a sport that transcends sport. It is a global phenomenon, and for many people, it is a beacon of hope that constantly burns on their horizons. I wanted just to take a moment and share with you some inspirational and thought-provoking soccer quotes from the people we regard as some of the best soccer players in the world.
240 Soccer Quotes
Top 10 Soccer Quotes
“Real Madrid is the most important thing that happened to me, both as a footballer and as a person.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Quality without results is pointless. Results without quality are boring.” – Johan Cruyff
“Pressure is working down the pit. The pressure is having no work at all. The pressure is trying to escape relegation on 50 shillings a week. The pressure is not the European Cup or the Championship or the Cup Final. That’s the reward.” – Bill Shankly
“Obviously fashion is a completely different world from football.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Nobody knows if Zidane is an angel or demon. He smiles like Saint Teresa and grimaces like a serial killer.” – Zinedine Zidane
“My toughest opponent? Scholes of Manchester. He is the complete midfielder.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Money is not a motivating factor. I do what comes to me at that moment.” – Diego Maradona
“Of course in the first matches, you are more careful, perhaps more careful than you should b.” – Diego Maradona
“Messi scores a goal and celebrates. Cristiano scores a goal and poses like he’s in a shampoo commercial.” – Diego Maradona
“I’ve seen the player who will inherit my place in Argentinian football and his name is Messi… He’s a leader and is offering classes in beautiful football.” – Diego Maradona
Short Soccer Quotes
“Everything is practice.” – Pelé
“A Mediterranean city is really my culture.” – Zinedine Zidane
“A great soccer player is never content with their performance.”
“I have decided to come back to Les Bleus.” – Zinedine Zidane
“I gave all I had. Now I want to enjoy my family.” – Diego Maradona
“If you ask why I play soccer, I ask you why do you breathe.”
“No excuses. Play like a champion.” – Kelley O’Hara
“Sometimes words are harder than blows.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Without the ball, you can’t win.” – Johan Cruyff
“Soccer is my life.” – Ethan Zohn
“I am supposed to set an example to young players.” – Zinedine Zidane
“You were only a goalkeeper.” – Diego Maradona
“Soccer is a magical game.” – David Beckham
“My heroes were always soccer players.” – Ronaldinho
“Messi is the Mozart of football.” – Zinedine Zidane
“A penalty is a cowardly way to score.” – Pelé
“I’m alive and I want to keep living.” – Diego Maradona
“I love football, football is my life.” – Wayne Rooney
“I am first of all from La Castellane and Marseille.” – Zinedine Zidane
“It’s too easy to blame other people in football.” – Steven Gerrard
Funny Soccer Quotes
“The day you think there is no improvements to be made is a sad one for any soccer player.” – Lionel Messi
“Stoichkov is a great person and an exceptional player… Only if we had him at Napoli… can you imagine the Stoichkov-Maradona attacking duo? I have 23 top players and they are all ready to put on the jersey and work on the pitch and that makes you happy and then you have peace of mind. When God decides its time, I guess he’ll come for us.” – Diego Maradona
“Sport is something that is very inspirational for young people.” – Pelé
“Many people say I’m the best women’s soccer player in the world. I don’t think so. And because of that, someday I just might be.” – Mia Hamm
“My game is based on improvisation. Often, a forward does not have the time to think too much. You have a second, rarely more, to decide whether to dribble, shoot or pass to the right or left. It is an instinct that gives the orders.” – Ronaldinho
“Mandela has played a crucial part in history. He’s done some extraordinary things, not only for his country but also for the whole world.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Lionel Messi is a wonderful player. Very skillful. Highly intelligent. He is not good in the air.” – Pelé
“Speed is often confused with insight. When I start running earlier than the others, I appear faster.” – Johan Cruyff
“Sometimes you have to accept you can’t win all the time.” – Lionel Messi
“My dad always taught me to never be satisfied: to want more and know that what is done is done. That was his way of seeing the game.” – Thierry Henry
“The best decisions aren’t made with your mind, but with your instinct.” – Lionel Messi
“Money is not a motivating factor…My motivation comes from playing the game I love. If I wasn’t paid to be a professional footballer, I would willingly play for nothing.” – Lionel Messi
“My father is an Algerian, proud of who he is and I am proud that my father is Algerian.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Messi makes the difference most of the time. In particular, he is always going forwards. He never passes the ball backward or sideways. He has only one idea, to run towards the goal. So as a football fan, just enjoy the show.” – Zinedine Zidane
“That’s the way I’ve been educated: I always think about what I missed and the things that you did, you did them, so you don’t have to think about them anymore.” – Thierry Henry
“It’s only natural to want to select your best players and there is no doubt for me that Paul Scholes is still in a class of his own. He’s almost untouchable in what he does. I never tire of watching him play.” – Zinedine Zidane
“I reached this level by sheer dint of hard work, toiling away at scores of tricks and experiments. I used to play with the ball from dawn till dusk and just kept practicing. If I wasn’t playing matches, it was trying out one on one or two against two with a tennis ball. Then I used to try aiming at certain targets. That’s the only way to learn. And if I missed the target, I kept trying until I score.” – Zinedine Zidane
“I am black or white, I’ll never be grey in my life.” – Diego Maradona
“If I pass away one day, I am happy because I tried to do my best. My sport allowed me to do so much because it’s the biggest sport in the world.” – Pelé
“Even if there was a hand, it was the hand of God.” – Diego Maradona
“I hate everything that comes from the United States. I hate it with all my strength.” – Diego Maradona
“I don’t have time for hobbies. At the end of the day, I treat my job as a hobby. It’s something I love doing” – David Beckham
“Enthusiasm is everything. It must be taut and vibrating like a guitar string.” – Pelé
“I don’t know if we are the best team in the world. I am lucky to be playing alongside some of the best players around. It’s a dream.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Don’t practice until you get it right. Practice until you can’t get it wrong.”
“Choose the best player for every position, and you’ll end up not with a strong XI, but with 11 strong 1’s.” – Johan Cruyff
“I was always determined to make it as a footballer, but if things hadn’t worked out, I’d have maybe followed my dad into the building industry.” – Steven Gerrard
“Football boots are very technical and have lots of specific requirements.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Everything Iniesta does impress me. He could even play as a goalkeeper. He’s magical.” – Zinedine Zidane
“I think the thing that has sort of always separated me, even from when I was younger, is my ability to score goals.” – Christine Sinclair
“I’m a very stubborn person. I think it has helped me over my career. I’m sure it has hindered me at times as well, but not too many times. I know that if I set my mind to do something, even if people are saying I can’t do it, I will achieve it.” – David Beckham
“God makes me play well. That is why I always make the sign of the cross when I walk out onto the field. I feel I would be betraying Him if I didn’t.It was as if we had beaten a country, more than just a football team.” – Diego Maradona
“For me, soccer provides so many emotions, a different feeling every day.” – Ronaldinho
Famous Soccer Quotes
“To be a footballer was just a dream, and I don’t believe in dreams. I only deal with what is real. To be honest, I’ve never thought about what I could get out of football or where it would take me. I just wanted to play. I’m the same now.” – Thierry Henry
“I have never had the opportunity to play in England, so I know little about it.” – Zinedine Zidane
“There’s no better feeling than stepping out on the field and stunning them all by doing what none of them thought you could do.” – Ashlyn Harris
“Winning and losing isn’t everything; sometimes, the journey is just as important as the outcome.” – Alex Morgan
“You have to fight to reach your dream. You have to sacrifice and work hard for it.” – Lionel Messi
“I am proud of where I come from and I will never forget the people I grew up with.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Every moment you spend not playing soccer, someone out there is getting better than you.”
“I just want people to see me as a hard-working footballer and someone who is passionate about the game.” – David Beckham
“You have got to shoot, otherwise you can’t score.” – Johan Cruyff
“I have never once dribbled the whole field and scored a goal by myself.” – Abby Wambach
“Every day I think about where I come from and I am still proud to be who I am: first, a Kabyle from La Castellane, then an Algerian from Marseille, and then a Frenchman.” – Zinedine Zidane
“You can’t get bored of winning. You can win 10 games in a row but you keep the same will to snatch the 11th. You always need more.” – Zinedine Zidane
“You can overcome anything, if and only if you love something enough.” – Lionel Messi
“Winning – that’s the most important to me. It’s as simple as that.” – Cristiano Ronaldo
“Whether it’s a friendly match, or for points, or a final, or any game – I play the same. I’m always trying to be my best, first for my team, for myself, for the fans, and to try and win.” – Lionel Messi
“Whenever people say ‘women’s soccer,’ I want to correct them to say ‘soccer.’ Every girl has had their sport diminished because they’re girls.” – Alex Morgan
“When your own fans whistle and jeer, then you have a big problem.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Zidane is probably the best player there has been in the past 20 years … France has recovered the best Zidane and they have progressively grown throughout this tournament.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Zidane is one of the greatest players in history, a truly magnificent player.” – Zinedine Zidane
“When the year starts, the objective is to win with all the team, personal records are secondary.” – Lionel Messi
“It’s true, the pressure is something that goes with football nowadays. You need to accept it, and everything that it involves – the good and the bad.” – Zinedine Zidane
“When people succeed, it is because of hard work. Luck has nothing to do with success.” – Diego Maradona
“If you’re playing for five hours you don’t want to score goals all the time and I loved dribbling. I could score a goal, but I preferred to dribble.” – Ronaldinho
“I think a lot of people thought women’s soccer had arrived and it was here to stay and it was going to be huge, but that wasn’t realistic. It has progressed slowly.” – Christine Sinclair
“I start early and I stay late, day after day, year after year. It took me years and days to become an overnight success.” – Lionel Messi
“If Giggs was French, Pires or I would have been on the bench.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Football is a game of mistakes. Whoever makes the fewest mistakes wins.” – Johan Cruyff
“I’m living a dream I never want to wake up from.” – Cristiano Ronaldo
“He’s a leader and is offering lessons in beautiful football. He has something different to any other player in the world. Many people agree with me that many things are not clear in football these days and it is not something people who watch football deserve. The situation will be the same while football is run by people who do not understand football while the coach is entitled to celebrate the team’s victories, there are a manner and a way of doing so without aggravating the opponent’s problem is that they are all stars at Madrid. You need someone to carry the water to the well.” – Diego Maradona
“Grit, Inspiration, Resistance, Lively, Stamina – That’s what girls are made of.”
“I am building a fire, and every day I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match.” – Mia Hamm
“Carlitos is amazing. He does what he wants with the Arabs. He tells them “I want to go to Buenos Aires” and they say “No, Carlitos, stay here now, we’ll give you more money”. And then he gets more money.” – Diego Maradona
“I have a need to play intensely every day, to fight every match hard.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Every single day I woke up and commit to myself to become a better player.” – Mia Hamm
“I come from a family where soccer has always been very present. My uncles, my father, and my brother were all players.” – Ronaldinho
“As you get older you play in more important games and that is when you start thinking about what will happen if you win or lose.” – Wayne Rooney
“Football is made up of all kinds of conflict. In a dressing room, between players, between us and the manager, between us and loads of people who don’t seem to matter. It’s constant and harsh sometimes.” – Wayne Rooney
“I’m attracted to soccer’s capacity for beauty. When well played, the game is a dance with a ball.” – Eduardo Galeano
Soccer Quotes For Girls
“You just want to keep playing consistently now and keep working hard and I’m sure the goals will come.” – Wayne Rooney
“Zidane is the master. Over the past 10 years, there’s been no-one like him, he has been the best player in the world.” – Zinedine Zidane
“We stay as a team. I might be England captain, but that doesn’t mean I get treated differently.” – David Beckham
“You rarely come across the complete footballer, but Scholes is as close to it as you can get. One of my regrets is that the opportunity to play alongside him never presented itself during my career.” – Zinedine Zidane
“You pressure, you want possession, you want to attack. Some teams can’t or don’t pass the ball. What are you playing for? What’s the point? That’s not football. Combine, pass, play. That’s football – for me, at least.” – Xavi
“You must respect people and work hard to be in shape. And I used to train very hard. When the other players went to the beach after training, I was there kicking the ball.” – Pelé
“To be recognized by a whole country is incredible. This is massive.” – Zinedine Zidane
“We are well aware of the task ahead of us in what will be a very difficult match but which we all dream of playing.” – Zinedine Zidane
“I play the game as honestly as I can. If the referee gives a penalty there is nothing you can do.” – Wayne Rooney
“I once cried because I had no shoes to play soccer, but one day, I met a man who had no feet.” – Zinedine Zidane
“To win you have to score one more goal than your opponent.” – Johan Cruyff
“The goal was scored a little bit by the hand of God, another bit by the head of Maradona.” – Diego Maradona
“Zidane was from another planet. When Zidane stepped onto the pitch, the 10 other guys just got suddenly better. It is that simple.” – Zinedine Zidane
“The Manchester Derby is bigger and more important than El Classico.” – Diego Maradona
“It’s hard to explain but I have a need to play intensely every day, to fight every match hard. And this desire never to stop fighting is something else I learned in the place where I grew up.” – Zinedine Zidane
“There is only one ball, so you need to have it.” – Johan Cruyff
“I think my desire to always get better, [is a trait that accounts for my success], to always want more, to always be my top critic, and accepting the good and the bad.” – Lionel Messi
“Scholes is undoubtedly the best midfielder of his generation.” – Zinedine Zidane
“The secret is to believe in your dreams; in your potential that you can be like your star, keep searching, keep believing and don’t lose faith in yourself.” – Neymar
“My legitimate kids are Dalma and Giannina. The rest is a product of my money and mistakes.” – Diego Maradona
“There was huge pressure, especially before the big games. Not many people believed in us, but we believed in ourselves. We wanted to do something good and we did.” – Zinedine Zidane
“In football, the result is an impostor. You can do things really, really well but not win. There’s something greater than the result, more lasting – a legacy.” – Xavi
“What I do is play soccer, which is what I like.” – Lionel Messi
“We must not let ourselves get driven off course, no matter what happens we must stick to our natural game.” – Zinedine Zidane
“If you don’t play well, you have a bad game or a nightmare you know that the amount of coverage is worldwide.” – Steven Gerrard
“If you are first you are first. If you are second you are nothing.” – Bill Shankly
“I love Madrid. I am happy to be here. I have been here for three years and hope to be here longer. But I am proud of where I come from and never forget the people I grew up with.” – Zinedine Zidane
“There are very few players who know what to do when they’re not marked. So sometimes you tell a player: that attacker is very good, but don’t mark him.” – Johan Cruyff
“When I wear the national team shirt, its sole contact with my skin makes it stand on an end.” – Diego Maradona
“If I could apologize and go back and change history I would do. But the goal is still a goal, Argentina became world champions and I was the best player in the world.” – Diego Maradona
“I always think that I would have become an actor if I hadn’t been a soccer player.” – Pelé
“I have a Pomeranian dog named Nutmeg – a combination of the soccer move and the color. It’s perfect.” – Christine Sinclair
“It’s the first time it’s happened to me and maybe the last. It’s a strange sensation, not normal for me. I can’t remember scoring three goals, even when I was a kid.” – Zinedine Zidane
“I certainly have an advantage over some because I can pass on so much from the World Cups I played in.I’m not desperate [but] I know that someday I’ll be the coach again of some team.” – Diego Maradona
“Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.” – Bill Shankly
“I always threw the ball in, because then if I got the ball back, I was the only player unmarked.” – Johan Cruyff
“I am constantly being asked about individuals. The only way to win is as a team. Football is not about one or two or three-star players.” – Pelé
“Every season is a new challenge to me, and I always set out to improve in terms of games, goals, assists.” – Cristiano Ronaldo
“I have my flaws too, but I am a professional who doesn’t like to miss or lose.” – Cristiano Ronaldo
“It is not just about the money, it is about what you achieve on the pitch.” – Ronaldinho
“Every year I try to grow as a player and not get stuck in a rut. I try to improve my game in every way possible. But that trait is not something I’ve worked on, it’s part of me.” – Lionel Messi
“Everybody makes mistakes, but when goalkeepers make them, it is costly. That’s the nature of being a goalkeeper.” – Gary Speed
“I have many years to get better and better, and that has to be my ambition. The day you think there is no improvements to be made is a sad one for any player.” – Lionel Messi
Soccer Quotes For Life
“You’re going to make mistakes in life. It’s what you do after the mistakes that counts.” – Brandi Chastain
“Without football (soccer), my life is worth nothing.” – Cristiano Ronaldo
“There are more important things in life than winning or losing a game.” – Lionel Messi
“Some people think football[soccer] is a matter of life and death. I don’t like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that.” – Bill Shankly
“Soccer isn’t something that you can fake. It’s a feeling, a passion, a lifestyle. If you don’t live, eat, sleep, and breath soccer, then you are not a true soccer player, you just wear the jersey.”
“My private life is perfect. If your private life and your life outside football is good, then it is good on the field for you.” – David Beckham
“Messi I think is like me, he is the best in the world along with Ronaldinho. Things are neither clear nor clean in the world of football right now and many people recognize this reality. At the moment there are some England players who are the stars of their club teams, but not for their country. It’s difficult to explain.I’d give my life to be the national team coach.” – Diego Maradona
“Life is like a game of soccer. You need goals. If there are no goals in your life then you can’t win.”
“I have always said the French team is the most important thing that has happened to me. I thought deeply about it and I want to play for France again.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Life is full of regrets, but it doesn’t pay to look back.” – Zinedine Zidane
“I was lucky to come from a difficult area. It teaches you not just about football but also life. There were lots of kids of different races and poor families. People had to struggle to get through the day.” – Zinedine Zidane
“I may have had a lot of luck in my life, but I still need to find a challenge in the game.” – Zinedine Zidane
“If a player is not interfering with play or seeking to gain an advantage, then he should be.” – Bill Shankly
“I’m lucky to be part of a team who help to make me look good, and they deserve as much of the credit for my success as I do for the hard work we have all put in on the training ground.” – Lionel Messi
“Football (soccer) is a matter of life and death, except more important.” – Bill Shankly
“All my life I thank God. My family was very religious.” – Pelé
“In football, I don’t have a lot of friends. The people who I really trust, there are not many… Most of the time, I’m alone.” – Cristiano Ronaldo
“In football (soccer), the worst blindness is only seeing the ball.” – Nelson Falcão Rodrigues
“I want to consistently play well and win titles. I’m only at the beginning.” – Cristiano Ronaldo
“It doesn’t matter how many times you win an award, it is always very special.” – Zinedine Zidane
“In France, everybody realized that God exists and that he is back in the French international team. God is back, there is little left to say.” – Zinedine Zidane
“In football (soccer) as in watchmaking, talent and elegance mean nothing without rigor and precision.” – Lionel Messi
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” – David Beckham
“I’m very inspired by him-it was my father who taught us that an immigrant must work twice as hard as anybody else, that he must never give up.” – Zinedine Zidane
“I love scoring goals for England and playing for England. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t retire – I love playing for my country.” – David Beckham
“Being a bit famous now gives me the opportunity to help people who really need it, especially children.” – Lionel Messi
“Beckenbauer: Zidane es incomparable, www.emol.com. 2003..” – Zinedine Zidane
“At 17, I already had a responsibility because I took care of my family, but in the football I was young; I wasn’t experienced or the captain – I was just in the team.” – Pelé
“I love football, I’ve never really taken an interest in anything else.” – Wayne Rooney
“I love football so when I finish playing I would like to still be involved in it somehow and a manager would be my first choice.” – Wayne Rooney
“I like to score goals but I also like to have friends among the people I have played with.” – Lionel Messi
“In football, the hero and legend status is given out far too easily for me.” – Steven Gerrard
Motivational Soccer Quotes
“I just hate losing and that gives you an extra determination to work harder.” – Wayne Rooney
“Of course, my father was a soccer player. He used to play very well. Then, when I was young, eight or nine years old, ten years old, I just want to be like my father.” – Pelé
“Ronaldinho is a special player, but Thierry Henry is probably technically the most gifted footballer ever to play the beautiful game.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Ronaldinho is total class – a very, very great player. He is quick, powerful, and has extraordinary technical qualities. He is a dribbler but is also a player who can make the play for his teammates. He’s not really a No.10, a true organizer. He’s more a second attacker who can score goals and has the vision to make them.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Pele should go back to the museum.” – Diego Maradona
“The door can never be closed for good to any player.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Soccer is simple, but it is difficult to play simple.” – Johan Cruyff
“My memories of events and games are fragmented.” – Zinedine Zidane
“The England team must always be respected. They always fight to the end.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Soccer is more than a ball and some goals. Soccer is the reason I wake up every day and breath.”
“Players that aren’t true leaders but try to be, always bash other players after a mistake. True leaders on the pitch already assume others will make mistakes.” – Johan Cruyff
“My only concern is playing. Everything else, my family looks after. In our house, everyone has a job, and my job in our house is to play soccer.” – Ronaldinho
“Technique is not being able to juggle a ball 1000 times. Anyone can do that by practicing. Then you can work in the circus. The technique is passing the ball with one touch, with the right speed, at the right foot of your teammate.” – Johan Cruyff
“The greatest feeling in the world is when you’re on that soccer field, and you know that your team is going to succeed because you look around and see your 10 best friends playing beside you.”
“Music was important. Football was the easy part.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Sometimes I just feel I have moved to a different place and I can make the pass, score the goal or go past my marker at will.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Something deep in my character allows me to take the hits and get on with trying to win.” – Lionel Messi
“The only important thing I have to say is that my father never fought against his country.” – Zinedine Zidane
“In football (soccer), the result is an impostor. You can do things really, really well but not win. There’s something greater than the result, more lasting – a legacy.” – Xavi
“I see myself as the best footballer in the world. If you don’t believe you are the best, then you will never achieve all that you are capable of.” – Cristiano Ronaldo
“I always think about what I missed, and I think that was my driving force – never be satisfied with what I’ve done.” – Thierry Henry
“As professional soccer players, we take our bodies to the extreme. We’re the people at the gym that look like we’re breaking the machines. Pushing our bodies to the limits is what makes us so strong and capable and Olympians. It’s not an easy thing to consistently do over and over again to your body.” – Abby Wambach
“I’ll be too old to face a difficult championship as the one in America will surely be.” – Diego Maradona
“If you’re a goalkeeper, it doesn’t matter what you save the ball with – if you keep it out, it’s not a goal.” – Mark Lawrenson
“As a goalkeeper you need to be good at organizing the people in front of you and motivating them. You need to see what’s going on and react to the threats. Just like a good manager in business.” – Peter Shilton
“As a footballer, you always want to test yourself against the best.” – David Beckham
“Alright, call me a tomboy. Tomboys get medals. Tomboys win championships. Tomboys can fly. Oh. And tomboys aren’t boys.” – Julie Foudy
“All the people that criticized me should eat their words.” – Diego Maradona
“If you don’t want to play clean football then go up into the stands something that just came out of me. It was a bit of mischief.” – Diego Maradona
“Football is about having the best offensive play possible. I always like to play offensive football, and nobody will convince me otherwise.” – Johan Cruyff
“Everything I have achieved in football is due to playing football in the streets with my friend.” – Zinedine Zidane
Inspirational Soccer Quotes
“One rule that will work if it is used everywhere, is that when you have a free-kick, the referee puts the mark on the floor to make sure the defenders keep their distance.”” – Cristiano Ronaldo
“Talent without working hard is nothing.” – Cristiano Ronaldo
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” – Pelé
“The French team has given me so much and I want to help it. I told myself I did not have much time left in soccer, and I want to profit from it to the maximum.” – Zinedine Zidane
“The only thing that matters is playing. I have enjoyed it since I was a little boy, and I still try to do that every time I go out on to a pitch. I always say that when I no longer enjoy it or it’s no longer fun to do it, then I won’t do it anymore. I do it because I love it and that’s all I care about.” – Lionel Messi
“I always had a philosophy which I got from my father. He used to say, ‘Listen. God gave to you the gift to play football. This is your gift from God. If you take care of your health, if you are in good shape all the time, with your gift from God no one will stop you, but you must be prepared.” – Pelé
“A lot of people, when a guy scores a lot of goals, think, ‘He’s a great player’ because a goal is very important, but a great player is a player who can do everything on the field. He can do assists, encourage his colleagues, give them the confidence to go forward. It is someone who, when a team does not do well, becomes one of the leaders.” – Pelé
“A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are.” – Bill Shankly
“A lion doesn’t concern himself with the opinions of the sheep.” – Lionel Messi
“1986 To reporters after Argentina’s WorldCup defeat of England in which he scored a goal with his hand, 22 Jun.” – Diego Maradona
“If you are determined and confident, there is nothing in this great existence that can stop you from achieving what you want.” – Zinedine Zidane
“I worked on my weaknesses and made them my strengths.” – Sydney Leroux
“A football team is like a piano. You need eight men to carry it and three who can play the damn thing.” – Bill Shankly
“I was, I am and I always will be a drug addict. A person who gets involved in drugs has to fight it every day.” – Diego Maradona
“Football is about joy. It’s about dribbling. I favor every idea that makes the game beautiful. Every good idea has to last.” – Ronaldinho
“To be honest with you, I never looked at soccer as a sacrifice.” – Brandi Chastain
“When I was growing up, you didn’t know there was a women’s national team. Now girls grow up dreaming of playing for Canada.” – Christine Sinclair
“Whatever brings you down will eventually make you stronger.” – Alex Morgan
“What I love most about Norway is you, ladies. Back home I’m used to fat and hairy women journalists.” – Diego Maradona
“There would be no debate about who was the best footballer the world had ever seen – me or Pele. Everyone would say to me.” – Diego Maradona
“My mother thinks I am the best. And I was raised to always believe what my mother tells m.” – Diego Maradona
“The Lord helps those who help themselves.” – Diego Maradona
“I know, firsthand, that soccer brings people together – all it takes is a ball and a few people, and the seeds of friendship are planted.” – Ali Krieger
“Zidane is unique. The ball flows with him. He is more like a dancer than a football player.” – Zinedine Zidane
“We were a family who had come from nothing and now we had respect from French people of all sorts.” – Zinedine Zidane
“There are two types of football – there are physical football and football talent.” – Xavi
“I think sometimes the best training is to rest.” – Cristiano Ronaldo
“All of us at Juventus agreed Manchester United were the best side we met in the Champions League. They have so many talented young players and can only get better and better. Giggs is truly world-class.” – Zinedine Zidane
“Aim for the sky and you’ll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you’ll stay on the floor.” – Bill Shankly
“After you’ve won something, you’re no longer 100 percent, but 90 percent. It’s like a bottle of carbonated water where the cap is removed for a short while. Afterward, there’s a little less gas inside.” – Johan Cruyff
“I think I chose wisely. When it came down to it, I knew I was a better goalkeeper than I was a bowler.” – David Seaman
“A game of soccer induces more than enjoyment, more than entertainment.” – Rabih Alameddine
“I spend the entire 90 minutes looking for space on the pitch. I’m always between the opposition’s two holding midfielders and thinking, ‘The defense is here, so I get the ball and I go there to where space is.” – Xavi
