Quotes about football

„The theatre couldn't match what was going on in a court of law or at football grounds. The theatre has never been able to match what goes on anywhere, that's why so few people go.“

—  Tom Baker English actor 1934

„This, we have to say it, remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy, confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous, perhaps, of all of The Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead … on … arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that newsflash, which in duty bound, we had to take.“

—  Howard Cosell American sportscaster 1918 - 1995

Monday Night Football, December 8, 1980.

„People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.“

—  Vince Lombardi American football player, coach, and executive 1913 - 1970

„Football is the ballet of the masses.“

—  Dmitri Shostakovich Russian composer and pianist 1906 - 1975

„The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.“

—  Dwight D. Eisenhower American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961) 1890 - 1969

„I am more worried about being a good person than being the best football player in the world. When all this is over, what are you left with? “

—  Lionel Messi Argentine association football player 1987

„Look, I'm a coach, I'm not Harry Potter. He is magical, but in reality there is no magic. Magic is fiction and football is real. “

—  José Mourinho Portuguese association football player and manager 1963

„I wasn't given the genetics for football. This is my gift right here. I was always well-built. You can't do certain sports without the genetics, and talent, too, of course.“

—  Ronnie Coleman American bodybuilder 1964

Ellen Mazo (May 1, 1999) "Building the Image of a Role Model", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, p. A-1.

„It seemed a pity so much Argentinian talent is wasted. Our best football will come against the right type of opposition—a team who come to play football, and not act as animals.“

—  Alf Ramsey English association football player and manager 1920 - 1999

Ramsey's indignant opinion of Argentina after England beat them 1–0 in a bruising quarter final in the 1966 World Cup. [World Cup medal honour for Sir Alf, http://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/world_cup_medal_honour_for_sir_alf_1_173288, 1 April 2012, ipswichstar.co.uk, 26 June 2009]

„Football is now all about money. There are problems with the values within the game. And this is sad because football is the most beautiful game. We can play it in the street. We can play it everywhere. Everyone can play it but those values are being lost. We have to bring them back.“

—  Johan Cruyff Dutch association football player 1947 - 2016

In an interview with The Guardian's Donald McRae in September 2014 https://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/12/johan-cruyff-louis-van-gaal-manchester-united.

„Look at London. Of course it matters to all of us that London's economy flourishes. But the test of the enormous wealth generated in patches of the capital is not that it contributed 20%-30% to Britain's GDP but how it affects the lives of the millions who live and work there. What kind of lives are available to them? Can they afford to live there? If they can't, it is not compensation that London is also a paradise for the ultra-rich. Can they get decently paid jobs or jobs at all? If they can't, don't brag about all those Michelin-starred restaurants and their self-dramatising chefs. Or schooling for children? Inadequate schools are not offset by the fact that London universities could field a football team of Nobel prize winners.“

—  Eric Hobsbawm British academic historian and Marxist historiographer 1917 - 2012

The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/10/financial-crisis-capitalism-socialism-alternatives (2009).

„I thought about quitting after Istanbul because nothing made sense any more…I no longer felt like a man. All of a sudden, football had become the least important thing, precisely because it was the most important: a very painful contradiction. I didn't dare look in the mirror in case my reflection spat back at me. The only possible solution I could think of was to retire.“

—  Andrea Pirlo Italian footballer 1979

On the losing the 2005 Champions League final to Liverpool
Ibid [pp. 84-86]

„I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Football. Bloody hell.“

—  Alex Ferguson Scottish footballer and manager 1941

„Football is like chess, only without the dice.“

—  Lukas Podolski German footballer 1985

Fussball ist wie Schach, nur ohne Würfel.
Quoted in David Gordon Smith. "German Football's Greatest Sayings." http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/like-chess-only-without-the-dice-german-football-s-greatest-sayings-a-558638-druck.html Spiegel Online International. 6 October 2008. Retrieved 10 April 2018.

„Ronaldo (Brazilian footballer) was my hero. He was the best forward I've ever seen. He was so fast that he could score a goal from nothing and he struck the ball better than anyone I've seen.“

—  Lionel Messi Argentine association football player 1987

Interview with FourFourTwo, 2012 http://www.fourfourtwo.com/news/messi-brazil-striker-ronaldo-my-hero

„The big test in football is how a captain leads under conditions of adversity.“

—  Jack Gibson Australian rugby league player and coach 1929 - 2008

„O'Connell: It's been suggested […] by teachers that live football should be shown after kids have gone to bed. Is swearing in football really such a big deal?“

—  Stuart Hall sociologist and cultural theorist 1929 - 2014

Rawling, Kelly answer
BBC Fighting Talk (2005)

„The socialism I believe in is everyone working for each other, everyone having a share of the rewards. It's the way I see football, the way I see life.“

—  Bill Shankly Scottish footballer and manager 1913 - 1981

[Powley, Adam, Robert, Gillan, Shankly's Village: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Glenbuck and its Famous Footballing Sons, https://books.google.com/books?id=Qe7NCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT162&lpg=PT162&dq=%22The+socialism+I+believe+in+is+everyone+working+for+each+other,+everyone+having+a+share+of+the+rewards.+It%27s+the+way+I+see+football,+the+way+I+see+life.%22&source=bl#v=onepage, 2016-08-18, 2015, Worthing, UK, Pitch, 931595421, 9781785310706]

„A big, studly football jock like me? I got plenty of blood to spare. For you, I have anything to spare.“

—  Kristin Cast, book Betrayed

Source: Betrayed