Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I've been lucky to be born in Spain to a good family. But some team-mates reached the same position from a tough background. Football is equal, and it doesn't matter where you come from.
Sports build good habits, confidence, and discipline. They make players into community leaders and teach them how to strive for a goal, handle mistakes, and cherish growth opportunities.
To have played for England was my ultimate ambition, and to do so at four World Cups and represent Team GB at a home Olympics was beyond the wildest dreams I had when first starting out.
The second-highest honor is playing for your country, and the highest honor is wearing the armband for your country. It shows that the players have confidence in me, and that feels good.
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.
My first memories are from when I was very little, maybe three or four years old playing in my neighbourhood at home. I can picture myself with the ball at my feet from a very young age.
I go out and do the best I can in each game, and I don't think about the fouls other players will commit or whether I might be injured. It only does you harm to worry about those things.
The goalkeeper always starts again at nil, even when you're 2-0 down. It always starts again at scratch. It's a completely mental thing, and I keep reminding myself of it during matches.
If you are 25, 30, 35, you need to think you can learn every day. If not, you are going to go backwards, and of course you are going to fail, and you begin to see the end of your career.
When our eyes see our hands doing the work of our hearts, the circle of Creation is completed inside us, the doors of our souls fly open and love steps forth to heal everything in sight.
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.
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.
Robot Wars is not a sport. Guys just play with remote controls. Now, if they were wired up and got an electrical shock each time their robot got hammered, then, yes, it would be a sport.
But I do love to cook. When I have a dinner party I like to invite loads of people, then I would just do like a salad buffet, with some snacks and cold meat and lots of different salads.
I think we have very good facilities for the youth in Holland. We have very good youth coaches and I think that is some of the reasons that always Holland has very good football players.
My parents sacrificed everything for me. My father worked on a building site and as a driver - so many jobs. My mum was at home full-time to take care of me, my sister, and two brothers.
English football is very different, and I had to adapt to it much more than I would have had if I had stayed in the Russian league. But after a season, I felt a lot better, a lot fitter.
Those of us who stayed were younger, more tractable. Less sure of ourselves socially and intellectually, we gave ourselves to the sport with little idea of what we could give or receive.
Real Madrid is one of the biggest clubs in the world. In every city, they have supporters. I hope that the people in Chicago support us, especially since we have some players on the team.
Winning is irrelevant when you’re 11 or 12 years old. It really is it. At youth tournaments, I look at the technical ability of the players. Whether the team wins or loses - I don’t care.
I am both honored and blessed to have had such a wonderful career with the L.A. Galaxy and I am thankful for everything the club, the fans and the community has done for me and my family.
My granddad always said he wanted to make me an England player. As soon as I went on to that pitch against Portugal, I knew he could die a happy man because he'd achieved his aim in life.
Culturally intelligent leaders will not assume they know what will build trust with clients or staff. Instead, they'll discover what's most important for communicating and building trust.
It will be a hard game if you think about winning a championship. We need to think about our own game at the moment and focus on getting good results especially over the Christmas period.
When I retired in 2006, I stayed for a further two years in England. I stayed because I wanted to be in England without being a footballer, without the rhythm. I wanted to enjoy the city.
If the manager thinks there is another player better than you, he is going to play, and this is the way. You have to try to improve and keep fighting and try to change the manager's mind.
I think what I've actually achieved as a manager does sometimes get a bit overlooked, because all people think about is the media side of things. They tend to forget I've not done so bad.
I don't think you need motivation to win a league or a trophy. It's every footballer's dream. It's why you play football. You enjoy and love the game, but you play to win and be the best.
It is so easy to be pleasant and charming and positive when life is going swimmingly well. You are winning. You are healthy. You are happy. But what happens when life throws darts at you?
It's obvious you always have to give everything in order to succeed. That's why playing at 80 per cent isn't enough - not against a 'normal' Bundesliga team. You always have to work hard.
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.
The main thing is to work hard. When you work hard, you'll be in the team. It's as simple as that. And that's what I'm going to do, put my head down, work hard, and see where it takes me.
I try not to destabilise myself. People talk a lot, but they also say some positive things, and I try to welcome those messages because they encourage me, and it is what I am looking for.
There's a great quote from Henry Kissinger, which I became aware of from reading [Joseph] Heller's Good As Gold. He said: 'Every great achievement was a dream before it became a reality.'
As a footballer I can't imagine life without the use of one of my legs... Sadly this is exactly what happens to thousands of children every year when they accidentally step on a landmine.
I can't understand why Scholes has never won the player of the year award. He should have won it long ago. Maybe it's because he doesn't seek the limelight like some of the other 'stars'.
And I don't really like golf. I know a lot of English footballers play, but I know that if I go with the club to play, sooner or later I will end up trying to smash the ball with my foot.
Do you have the heart to push yourself? If you don't, find a way to get it because talent will only get you so far. You've got to be hungry. You've got to have heart. That's just reality.
The hard wind we get around here on the eastern slopes of the Rockies is called a Chinook. It's a katabatic wind and comes from mountains to the west of us and the mountains to the south.
OCD is an anxiety disorder, one that brings conscious intrusive thoughts and compulsions - 'Touch the bannister. Pick up that rock. You'd better do it, or something terrible will happen.'
As soon as things get serious in front of the goal, I don't have any twitches... It's probably because at that moment, my concentration on the game is stronger than the Tourette syndrome.
I've received much from Manchester - a great career at the highest level, unconditional support from the fans through thick and thin, a lovely family, and so much more to be grateful for.
At the end of the day, you can be physically strong, you can have all the tools out there, but if your mental state isn't good enough, you can't bring yourself to bigger and better things.
Many people look at me and think they know me but they don't at all. This is the real me. I am a humble person, a feeling person. A person who cares about others, who wants to help others.
That goal [in the 1998 World Cup] changed me-not as a person, but as a player. People have looked at me differently ever since. It gave me confidence and now I feel I can achieve anything.
When Chelsea came to me and said they wanted me to come back, I was happy because I had a special moment here - one of the best in my career. I won the Champions League, the Europa League.
Our thinking tends to be hazy, hasty, narrow, or sprawling-causal terms for impulsive. Just like anything else, thinking skills require upkeep. If they aren't nourished, they'll fade away.
I try to be this kind of player: the type who does something whenever he gets the ball. Sometimes in the past, I've gone through games where I've not touched the ball for 20 or 30 minutes.
In the old days, you had an audience of about 400, half of whom were committee members from somewhere or other sitting in their suits. It's become a real sports event with sports fans now.
I don't feel that I'm particularly political. I'm interested in politics; I'll express my view if I feel strongly about something, but humanitarian issues, I think, are slightly different.