Michel Patini Quotations

The 1984 European Championships were held in France and that was something important. I felt on form then, even though I was practically always injured at all the World Cups. It's a great memory. But in any case, the past is past.

I gave everything in my career so I have no regrets at all.

Some games you win, some you lose, and some you draw.

We arrived in Argentina with a lot of injured players, including our goalkeeper. Also we were unlucky to be drawn in the same group as the two tournament favourites Italy and Argentina.

I was playing the best football of my career at the time, finishing top scorer in Italy three year's running. There were other good players around but I think I was the best at that time.

We were the best team in the world: European champions in 1984, we qualified without a hitch and 86 was to be the swan song for a very experienced side.

For me, football is just a game, not a drama.

For me football is more about making the right pass at the right time.

I was never a prisoner to my footballing status.

Whenever I was on the pitch, I always tried to win.

In any case, you can't turn back the clock.

When I follow the finals of the European Cups, I look at all the aspects surrounding protocol, to get some ideas. I am interested in personalities, sponsors and the stands. But as soon as the whistle goes, it's all on the pitch.

At Euro '92 itself, we bowed out to the eventual winners, Denmark, in our final group match.

At times like that it's difficult to remember what's at stake, that history is in the making. As a player you feel so cut off sometimes, it can be tough... Which is why it is an enormous advantage to play at home.

I was the classic midfield organiser who could also score goals.

What differences were there between Maradona and Platini?

You know, my role as Vice Chairman is a lot less tiring than playing matches every three days.

In 1986, we gave it our best shot but we didn't get the run of the ball.

The match against Brazil was football at its best. Both sides had opportunities to win the game.

There would probably be less of a frenzy among the French public.

Consequently, I won just about everything I set out to win, everything bar the World Cup, of course. But even now, I don't regret that, because I was part of a team which twice reached the semi-finals.

During such a competition players are there for a long time as well as all the people around them. They need to train, to eat, to go out. There ought to be something in it for everyone. On that particular point, my experience has been a bonus.

The team which I led to the 1992 European Championship Finals is the only one in the history of the entire competition to have won every single one of its qualifying matches.

If a FIFA World Cup tournament had been held every year between 1982 and 1986, France would have won two or three.

It is a game before a product, a sport before a market, a show before a business.

I began by playing for the biggest club in the Lorraine region, went on to the biggest club in France and ended up with the biggest in the world.

The street is the best way to become a good footballer.

Messi has all the conditions to be the best, but first he has to beat Maradona, Romario and then eventually Pele.

The European Commission says that people who are working the country can play in the national team. Perhaps Didier Drogba can play for England after five years. We have to protect against that.

Beckham in Paris will certainly be good for shopping. I love this player but he is not the footballer he was. And if he comes to Paris now it will be to do something other than football.

I'm well-educated person. I don't reurn the gift

A football match should be decided by an action of play. Not some contrived process whose end result is to mark a fine player such as Bossis, Baresi or Baggio for the rest of his career.

A football team represents a way of being, a culture.

Messi is the great player of this generation, like there were great players in other generations.

The most skillful is Thierry Henry, he has impressed me the most. He's played a great tournament(Euro '00). He has the pace of Anelka, and the sense of Trezeguet. He's got something that no French player has ever had. He can do everything: from scoring goals, to giving assists, crossing and creating space for other players, and he fights for every ball. I've never see a player in France like him

What Zidane can do with a football, Maradona could do with an orange.

Footballing qualities can be developed, but Stoichkov is a player with character and inborn talent. I've seen him produce fantastic plays even from impossible situations... I couldn't believe it, when I heard that I used to be his idol.