Soccer Quotations

If it doesn't matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?

Pele called me the greatest footballer in the world. That is the ultimate salute to my life.

What I do is play soccer, which is what I like.

Everything is practice.

Baseball is a team game but, at the same time, it's a very lonely game: unlike in soccer or basketball, where players roam around, in baseball everyone has their little plot of the field to tend. When the action comes to you, the spotlight is on you but no one can help you.

One accusation you can't throw at me is that I've always done my best.

Who ever wins today will win the championship no matter who wins.

If you are first you are first. If you are second, you are nothing.

I can shoot a three pointer in basketball, and I can kick a soccer ball.

I am a big soccer fan, and a very big Liverpool fan.

Once you consent to some concession, you can never cancel it and put things back the way they are.

Very few of us have any idea whatsoever of what life is like living in a goldfish bowl,except, of course, for those of us who are goldfish.

I get asked this a lot: Why has soccer not succeeded? My answer is, soccer has succeeded. It is already the fastest growing youth participation sport in the U.S. It has already succeeded at the youth level, no question.

The match has become quite unpredictable, but it still looks as though Arsenal will win the cup

You look at boxing being an international, world-famous sport, right up there next with soccer, and there's only two fighters the people want to see fight. Two little fellows, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather.

You have to fight to reach your dream. You have to sacrifice and work hard for it.

I'm a soccer mom. I'm T-ball, soccer, karate, homework, keeping them on their schedules. I love being the snack mom, when I get to bring the cut oranges. I have one of those coolers with wheels. I'm at every game, every practice, sitting on my blanket. I love it.

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

Soccer's not a game that you can restrict players, especially creative players and players who have proven themselves at that level.

One reason outfielders don't have stronger arms might be they don't practice as much as we did. Most teams today don't take outfield practice. Another reason is baseball has to compete with other sports now - basketball, football, soccer - for the better athletes that might have more skills and stronger arms.

Behind every kick of the ball there has to be a thought.

At least is was a victory and at least we won

I am excited to bring my deep knowledge, passion and expertise of soccer in this country to The New York Cosmos. They truly represent where this sport is headed on a national and international level, and I want to make history with them.

I think soccer is more respected now than it ever has been. You can see that in the numbers of young kids who are playing and the numbers of people who are coming to watch.

It was a fair decision, the penalty, even though it was debatable whether it was inside or outside the box

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.

Growing up as a kid my father was British and a soccer player. His idol was a guy that passed the ball a lot, Stanley Matthews. Our family thought if you could be unselfish your teammates would always like you.

I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.

My mom was always the supplier of soccer balls, and so people were always knocking on my door, and trying to get me out so we could play.

My dad was a football player - a soccer player - for Manchester United, and I loved playing football, but I also happened to be the guy in class who was pretty good at sight reading. My teacher gave me scripts, and I was very comfortable.

I couldn't settle in Italy-it was like living in a foreign country.

After getting glasses and contacts it was kind of a wow moment that I could definitely see better and on the soccer field it really helped me.

To play Holland, you have to play the Dutch.

I think Barcelona and the Spanish national team have been good for soccer because there are a lot of teams that come up playing from the back : with the goalie, the defense, moving up a defender to midfield, playing attacking soccer. I think fans want to see that. They want to see beautiful soccer, a spectacle, and Barcelona does that.

I played at the Sainte Maxime Beach Soccer Tournament, which was brilliant fun as usual.

Football's not just about scoring goals - it's about winning.

I was the kid who always liked to take the ball down to the school even in my free time, kick it against the wall, juggle it in the front yard and so it was kind of a perpetual state of playing soccer for me.

When you play soccer, most of the time you got to get the ball moving, but once you get into that attacking third you gotta be creative, you gotta let your talent take over.

I enjoy talking to my football men and my chemistry classes and I feel sure that they are quite interested in what I have to say.

I hope all you young girls see yourself up there... we were just like you.

At least for soccer players, it comes down to a blend of two types of fitness - your base endurance, which comes from longer distance running, and your speed, which comes from sprint-based workouts.

They say Rome wasn't built in a day, but I wasn't on that particular job.

There's a tipping point that happens with soccer in which you just kinda get it. I was drawn to it because the best soccer teams play similarly to my favorite basketball teams - like the eighties Lakers or eighties Celtics - teams that emphasized teamwork over individualism and relied on passing as their biggest ongoing edge.

What a great day for football, all we need is some green grass and a ball.

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.

I love sports, and when I was playing soccer, I was always trying to be the leader on the team and the one who takes control.

It's the only way we can lose, irrespective of the result.

I had aspirations to do different things with my life. I wanted to play soccer. I wanted to be a lawyer. Serendipity.

Last week I was in London at an awards show, then I flew home and was in an RV park with my wife and kids in our motorhome, this week I'm in NY doing a charity event, and tomorrow I'll be coaching my daughters soccer practice. I guess the range of roles I play on film stem from the range of roles I play in real life.

Confidence doesn't come out of nowhere. It's a result of something... hours and days and weeks and years of constant work and dedication.

Kung fu and soccer are the two things that I was most interested in as a child.

Players lose you games, not tactics. There's so much crap talked about tactics by people who barely know how to win at dominoes.

I went to professional men's soccer games, the old North American soccer league at that time, and I used to be a ticket holder with my family and family friends. We would go every weekend and I thought it was great, but I just thought of it as recreation, as family fun.

In general I like a guy who is athletic, somebody who can teach me something. Whether it's teaching me a new way to cut on a wave or teach me a three-point conversion or teach me how to dribble a soccer ball. There's something really cool about that.

Football (soccer) is a matter of life and death, except more important.

It takes a tremendous amount of skill to be a football player. And some of these guys have enough skills to do other sports. Soccer could be one. Basketball could be another. Things where you need incredible hand-eye coordination are always options. I think a football player would be able to adapt to a lot of sports.

Growing up, others girls wanted to dance and help their mums with the cooking. I liked to play soccer with the boys. Or I'd be off on my own, tilting mirrors towards the sun in order to burn armies of ants. That was my idea of fun.

I played on this soccer team, called Hollywood United, and there were a lot of old ex-international pro-players. We played this benefit match at the Rose Bowl, and the crowd streamed in. It's so nerve-wracking to go out into a stadium, feeling a billion eyes upon you when you mess up your touches. That's an overwhelming environment.

Unless your kid is Pele Jr., they're not going to be able to feed themselves from soccer. If your kid knows how to play soccer, but not make dinner, you have done them a disservice.

I used to go missing a lot... Miss Canada, Miss United Kingdom, Miss World.

Even all the top players going to Europe to play helps soccer in America, as do all the MLS players like Beckham and all that, they're trying to promote it. At the end of the day it's about getting the younger generation interested at an early age so most of them will move on and play.

I had a very simple, unremarkable and happy life. And I grew up in a very small town. And so my life was made up of, you know, in the morning going to the river to fetch water - no tap water, and no electricity - and, you know, bathing in the river, and then going to school, and playing soccer afterwards.

And of course in America you've got American football and baseball and all those other ball games, soccer has become a little niche that the women have kind of filled.

I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.

Sometimes something's got to happen before something is going to happen.

Ibiza is a popular vacation place for a lot of the players in Spain. If you go in the summer, there are some of the world's most famous movie and music stars, so nobody cares about soccer players.

I also tell them that your education can take you way farther than a football, baseball, track, or basketball will - that's just the bottom line.

The World Cup experience is more than just the game of soccer. It's an event. And it will fly by faster than you think. It will end and you'll be saying, 'Wow, it's over already?' You have to remember to take it all in and enjoy it.

When I go, God's going to have to give up his favourite chair.

I've used my experience from playing sports in almost every aspect of my life. Playing soccer is where I found my voice, and playing softball was where I learned precision, and in every game I learned to play as a member of a team - to work not for my own glory, but for a shared goal.

Why lie? I'm not going to be a hypocrite and say the opposite of what I think, like some others do.

If I can make an impact, I want to help some kids and bridge the gap between soccer and celebrity in America.

I was a good student, I was good at soccer, I was vice president of the student council, I was a pretty girl.

If God had wanted man to play soccer, he wouldn't have given us arms.

But I think it's also hard to get into soccer here. I think purely on a time level on television as well because of the ad breaks. It's something to do with that as well. You can't show a complete soccer match here. Which I kind of find a bit of an odd thing.

Please don't call me arrogant, but I'm European champion and I think I'm a special one.

Yes there is a little group of soccer aficionados, but I am not one of them.

Of course I wanted an agent from the time I was like 5, but my mother was like, 'No, you're going to be normal, you're going to go to school, you're going to get good grades, you're going to play soccer, and if you do well, if you keep your grades up, you can do one community-theater show a year'.

Well, either side could win it, or it could be a draw.

I grew up playing soccer and always loved playing it.

On occasions I have been big-headed. I think most people are when they get in the limelight. I call myself Big Head just to remind myself not to be.

Number one, it was a chance to thank my parents, because they passed away a couple of years ago. They gave me so much by giving me the opportunity to play soccer, and I wanted to share the story we had together.

There's no point in making predictions. It's not worth speculating because nothing is set in stone and things change all the time in football. Today there are opportunities that no one knows if they will come round again in the future.

Soccer was the first sport that my parents put me in, and ultimately, all the parents kind of came over to my mom and were, 'We think Channing would be better at football.... We love him, he's really great, but he's kind of hurting our children.' I was just a little wild.

For me soccer provides so many emotions, a different feeling every day. I've had the good fortune to take part in major competitions like the Olympics, and winning the World Cup was also unforgettable. We lost in the Olympics and won in the World Cup, and I'll never forget either feeling.

Soccer is a continuous game, rugby is a continuous game, but for the physical elements that are involved in playing a football game and the number of plays that you play, I don't know that it was ever intended to be a continuous game.

Soccer is a great game, and the rich variety of styles and passions that come with being truly global makes the World Cup a nonpareil event in the universe of competitive sport.

I tried all kinds of sports when I was a kid, like soccer and tennis and golf, and, in fact, started skating to be able to play hockey.

My workout was running down fly balls, stealing a base, or running for my life on the football field.

Jon Stewart says that he was a little kid with a big head. He had very little athletic ability. He went out to the soccer field, and it was awful.

I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the business. But I was in the top one.

I played all kinds of sports when I was young: tennis, handball, basketball, some soccer. I focused on basketball when I was 16 or 17 and then came to the U.S. when I was 20.

A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are.

I tell the players that the bus is moving. This club has to progress. And the bus wouldn't wait for them. I tell them to get on board.

The essence of football was blocking, tackling, and execution based on timing, rhythm and deception.

Soccer isn't very social. Plus, if you don't like someone on the other team, you can do something about it.

The goals made such a difference to the way this game went

Soccer is simple, but it is difficult to play simple.

I used to play soccer when I was in Morocco, but I was more of a basketball player. I played high school basketball, I played AAU basketball.

To be honest with you, I never looked at soccer as a sacrifice.