Footballer Quotes

#1. Celebrity culture, it's everywhere, isn't it? It's reality TV, Big Brother. I didn't become a footballer to be famous, I became a footballer to be successful. I didn't want to be famous. Now people want to be famous. Why? Why would you want people following you about all day?

Ryan Giggs

#2. I want to be a footballer - and that means playing on a Saturday afternoon.

Charlie Adam

#3. People don't understand that the feel of the surface is so important for a footballer. The ball travels on the surface; our feet move on the surface - all of that goes into how the game is actually played.

Abby Wambach

#4. Not just me but every professional footballer will tell you they miss playing the game, I miss the game especially as I retired early, not because I was a bad player but I retired solely for health reasons.

Fabrice Muamba

#5. I wouldn't swap Paul Scholes for anybody. He is quite simply the most complete footballer I have ever played with. He is the best.

Gary Neville

#6. It's is always nice to be respected as a footballer. I am going to go out and enjoy the game and if I can set one or two goals up then so be it - I would love to.

David Beckham

#7. As a private person I think I am now totally different from Ruud van Nistelrooy the footballer.

Ruud Van Nistelrooy

#8. I look at Messi, and he makes me laugh. A beautiful footballer who is still like a kid. A world superstar, but still a kid. Innocent, you know. He just plays.

Johan Cruyff

#9. You're obviously conscious of being brash or big-headed but I always knew I was going to be a footballer when I was seven or eight. I didn't just think I wanted to be one, I knew I was going to be one. Nothing ever surprised me really.

Michael Owen

#10. For years Paul Scholes has been one of the best players in the Premiership. He's incredible. He has always been under-rated throughout his career. He's a team player, a one and two-touch footballer who makes good decisions on the pitch and makes his team play.

Thierry Henry

#11. As an ex-footballer, sometimes surfer and wannabe rock star, Quentin had been fucked by cheerleaders, surfer girls and groupies, but he had never, ever been fucked like that.

Ros Baxter

#12. When I was a teenager, my idol was the Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff. He's the only person I've ever asked for an autograph.

Ferran Adria

#13. 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

#14. The lifestyle I lead as a footballer means I am always in the spotlight.

Wayne Rooney

#15. If that lad makes a First Division footballer, then I'm Mao Tse Tung.

Tommy Docherty

#16. I've been booed in Holland and in Uruguay - as a professional footballer, you need to have thick skin and just get used to it.

Luis Suarez

#17. If a footballer presents himself as a family man and goes and has sex with a prostitute, should he gag her?

Nicky Campbell

#18. If I wasn't acting, I'd try and be a footballer. I wouldn't be a musician because I can't write my own music. Realistically, I'd probably do something with dogs, like a vet or something. I love animals.

Jamie Blackley

#19. At the end of the day, I'm a footballer who has played at some of the biggest football clubs in the world and played with some of the best players in the world.

David Beckham

#20. There would be no debate about who was the best footballer the world had ever seen - me or Pele. Everyone would say me.

Diego Maradona

#21. Dave Mackay was the kind of footballer that legends are built around. He was simply the greatest - tough as teak on the pitch and a real gentleman off it.

Alex Salmond

#22. Real Madrid is the most important thing that happened to me, both as a footballer and as a person.

Zinedine Zidane

#23. 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.

Ryan Giggs

#24. He's a fantastic talent and the complete footballer, probably the most coveted in the Premiership. It's a privilege for the rest of us to be on the same field. If i could have anything i wanted for Christmas, i'd take Thierry Henry

Steve Bruce

#25. When I was seven I wanted to be a footballer, but when I was 14, I wanted to be a model. Look where it's put me now!

David Beckham

#26. Messi is undoubtedly a gifted footballer, like Maradona and Pele, and he's playing for the best club side in the world at the moment. He's successful and he's winning trophies, so it's only logical that he'll be voted the best player in the world.

Oliver Kahn

#27. I don't recognize myself in the players I see today. There's only one who excites me, and that is Thierry Henry. He's not just a great footballer, he's a showman, an entertainer.

George Best

#28. I understand football. I have always been a good footballer, and that gets overlooked by most people.

Alan Smith

#29. I did Scottish footballer of the year this year, attempted to do some comedy at that. Not the brightest people in the world. There were seven O-Levels in that room, and they were all mine.

Frankie Boyle

#30. People whistle me because I am good-looking, rich and a great footballer. They are jealous of me.

Cristiano Ronaldo

#31. I just want people to see me as a hard-working footballer and someone who is passionate about the game.

David Beckham

#32. In England, Rooney is a world-class footballer in the world.

Paul Merson

#33. He's going to be what?! Oh for God's sake. Sir David Beckham? You're having a laugh. He's just a good footballer with a famous bird.

Ian Holloway

#34. I've got no interest in football. My brother's a footballer, too, and I was dragged to the freezing pitch every week as a child. I don't see much glamour in it.

Abbey Clancy

#35. 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.

Dennis Bergkamp

#36. I'm a footballer, that's my job and that's all I want to be known for.

Jamie Redknapp

#37. Nowadays, Messi is better than Ronaldinho. He is the best footballer in the world right now. And I'm not the only who says so. Everyone who has seen him play says so too.

Sergio Aguero

#38. I am going to continue and bring this club forward. I am Paul Gascoigne the footballer.

Paul Gascoigne

#39. George Best was one of the most talented players of all time and probably the best footballer who never made it to a major world final.

Franz Beckenbauer

#40. It's impossible to be more of a footballer than Messi.

Frank Rijkaard

#41. There is pressure every day as a footballer.

Jamie Redknapp

#42. I'm a footballer, I don't think past next Saturday.

Joleon Lescott

#43. Ronaldinho is a special player, but Thierry Henry is probably technically the most gifted footballer ever to play the beautiful game.

Zinedine Zidane

#44. Being married to a footballer is some girls' dream, but it isn't always like that. I work.

Abbey Clancy

#45. Lampard, for me, was a marvellous servant for Chelsea, but I didn't think of him as an elite international footballer. And I am one of the few who felt Gerrard was not a top, top player.

Alex Ferguson

#46. A young man, when sliced up by glass From a footballer's tragic mis-pass Said, 'Hey, there's no harm Done; it's only an arm. I'm just thankful it wasn't my arse.

J.L. Merrow

#47. Originally, I wanted a pop career and formed a girl-band 'Genie Queen' managed by Andy McClusky from 'Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark', but it didn't work out. My brother John is the talented singer and song-writer with 'The Razz,' while my other brother Sean is a footballer for Telford United.

Abbey Clancy

#48. I started out in Scotland, not as a footballer of any note, and I didn't play to draw the attention of people abroad.

Walter Smith

#49. Would I swap what I have achieved as a cook if I could have been as successful as a footballer? Definitely.

Gordon Ramsay

#50. I had an early taste of fame. I was 20, going out with TV presenter Dani Behr and we'd have paparazzi chasing us. I'm not comfortable being photographed, though I accept it is part of the job. I had to ask myself, 'What comes first, being a celebrity or footballer?'

Ryan Giggs

#51. Nobody expects a footballer to have any kind of an IQ, which is a bit of an unfair stereotype.

Frank Lampard

#52. I'd have loved to have been a footballer. I was always playing football and I enjoyed it much more than tennis to begin with. It's more fun to play in a team, all the parents are there cheering you on.

Andy Murray

#53. I tend to get starstruck with sports people. I was on a chat show with retired Scottish footballer Denis Law and I just lost it and couldn't talk to him.

Martin Shaw

#54. I got injured when I was a kid, and it prevented me from becoming a footballer.

Matt Smith

#55. I didn't become a footballer to be famous, I became a footballer to be successful. I didn't want to be famous. Now people want to be famous. Why? Why would you want people following you about all day? I couldn't think of anything worse.

Ryan Giggs

#56. Ryan Giggs will go down as the most successful British footballer of all time and I cannot see anyone ever overtaking him. He's on the brink of his 13th league title, after all.

Gary Neville

#57. Thirteen years after Basic Instinct, Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone) is now in London, and is going out with a footballer played by Stan Collymore, of all people. On the rebound from John Motson, perhaps. It is difficult to convey just how uproariously awful this movie is, all of the time.

Peter Bradshaw

#58. 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

#59. I've always wanted to be a top footballer since I was young.

Michael Owen

#60. Henry is a beautiful player and has got complete technique, I adore watching him. I respect him very much as a man and as a footballer. He reminds me of myself.

Ronaldinho

#61. I'm convinced, that when you are a footballer you are a symbol. You have to be a superman in some ways, to send messages to people all the time, to the youth all the time.

Emmanuel Petit

#62. I want to work with kids and help develop them, show them the right way, the right morals and attitude into how to become a better footballer. Australia has many different cultures but I'd like to bring in the indigenous style, bring their competitiveness, athleticism and raw ability into the frame.

Timothy F. Cahill

#63. I'll have you know that I am not a failed Third Division footballer. I am a failed Second Division footballer.

Eamon Dunphy

#64. The Greatest" is a bite-your-tongue-book. Ultimately a tragic tale it is also immensely uplifting and easily the best footballer biography I have ever read.

Mike Parry

#65. 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

#66. I have never imagined doing anything other than football, but now, thinking about it coldly, if I hadn't been a footballer, I would have been a musician.

Ronaldinho

#67. Now Jack Charlton wasn't wrong, I was a bad footballer.

Craig Johnston

#68. Pele was the only footballer who surpassed the boundaries of logic.

Osvaldo Ardiles

#69. I always wanted kids I could take to work, and for them to experience the things I experience. So, having three boys as a footballer was a dream.

David Beckham

#70. I feel very strong as an individual, but as a famous footballer I know I am prone to certain things. All the media have a continuous interest for me. It varies from once a year to every day interest.

Ruud Van Nistelrooy

#71. 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.

Michel Patini

#72. Pulling on your country's shirt is the greatest honour a footballer can have. It's what I always dreamed of as a kid and I get a buzz every time.

Wayne Rooney

#73. Ronaldo can do whatever he wants as a footballer. There are some things he does with the ball that make me touch my head and wonder how he did it.

Cristiano Ronaldo

#74. Every footballer wants to play forever. And if you are going to keep on playing - to enjoy it to the full - you want to win games, and as a result, trophies.

Ryan Giggs

#75. To be a footballer means being a privileged interpreter of the feelings and dreams of thousands of people.

Cesar Luis Menotti

#76. As a footballer's wife, I take great exception to the way we are portrayed in Footballers' Wives.

Karren Brady

#77. I'm a working class lad. So at 25, and with no-one in our family having any theatrical inclination, when I said, 'I'm going to scratch all that and become an actor,' I may as well have said I was going to be a Premiership footballer for the chance I'd have.

Rob James-Collier

#78. As a footballer, you always want to test yourself against the best.

David Beckham

#79. If you cut me in half, I'm a footballer.

Michael Owen

#80. I take compliments and I take constructive criticism. Not everyone loves you. It's the way you react as a footballer. I use it all to make me play better.

Timothy F. Cahill

#81. If he isn't named footballer of the year, football should be stopped and the men who picked any other player should be sent to Kremlin.
(on Tommy Smith)

Bill Shankly

#82. More than anyone, I am aware of the preconceptions. I was a Spice Girl. I'm married to a footballer.

Victoria Beckham

#83. Had I not become a footballer, I think I would have been a virgin.

Peter Crouch

#84. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a footballer and racing driver, like all kids.

Diego Della Valle

#85. Having a stadium in France named after a footballer from the Ivory Coast, even if I'm proud of my France-Ivory Coast background, is a great proof of integration.

Didier Drogba

#86. The last player I truly idolize ... No other footballer is more worthy of the number 10 shirt than him.
(on Maradona)

Hristo Stoichkov

#87. I don't know what I'd have become if I hadn't been a footballer; I wrote down 'dustbin man' on a careers questionnaire at school till my dad made me change it to 'joiner'.

Alan Shearer

#88. We won't ever see another one like Paul Scholes. He is a legend and a real benchmark. He is not interested in the modern-day footballer's life off the pitch, but he is a world-class player on it

Darren Fletcher

#89. If you want to be a professional footballer, you have to respect your profession. You have to respect the people that are making you the star you are. You have to protect the passion everyday.

Emmanuel Petit

#90. We had to be down early to get the best stuff for the pros we looked after and then get the rags that we were left ourselves for training. It seems very old school but it grounded me as a person and made me appreciate everything as a footballer, because all we got was a pair of boots.

Colin Cooper

#91. You have to put all the criticism of this club down to jealousy. United have produced more players who have played for their country, more world-class players and more players who have won European Footballer of the Year than any other team in this country, so we must be doing something right.

Alex Ferguson

#92. Money is not a motivating factor. Money doesn't thrill me or make me play better because there are benefits to being wealthy. I'm just happy with a ball at my feet. 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

#93. There is no excuse for a professional footballer not to be 100% fit.

Jock Stein

#94. I'm very proud of 'Gavin and Stacey,' but I think I have to write something else even to start to consider myself a writer. Just because you do something once, it doesn't mean that's who you are. I played football last night; it doesn't mean I'm a footballer.

James Corden

#95. It was very hard for me as a kid to get through as a footballer in Uruguay.

Luis Suarez

#96. Even as a footballer, I was always being creative.

Eric Cantona

#97. Every professional footballer should seek to play at least one game at Celtic Park. I have never felt anything like it.

Paolo Maldini

#98. As a kid, you obviously dream of being a professional footballer. I would watch players like Ronaldo of Brazil and pretend to be him in the playground. But I don't think about trying to become one of the best in the world or anything like that. I just play football.

Gareth Bale

#99. Scholesy was a genius, absolute genius. He was a center-forward's dream, you could make a run and he'd put the ball perfectly in your path. Any footballer you ask will always tell you that Scholesy was one of the best players they've ever played with.

Michael Owen

#100. The most complete footballer in the history of the game.

Eusebio