Quotes about player
page 6

Zygmunt Vetulani photo
Roberto Clemente photo
Kumar Sangakkara photo

“You would always prefer to give back to your own country first but the way Mahela conducted himself as a player for Sri Lanka over the years has been exemplary”

Kumar Sangakkara (1977) Sri Lankan cricketer

Kumar Sangakkara on Mahela as a coaching consultant for England, quoted on The Guardian, "Kumar Sangakkara: England made smart move on mentor Mahela Jayawardene" http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/mar/13/kumar-sangakkara-england-mahela-jayawardene-world-twenty20-sri-lanka, March 13, 2016.

Alois Hába photo
Michele Simon photo
Alexander Ovechkin photo

“My dream has come true. I play with the great players and on a great team. I'm smiling and happy and enjoying the time of my life.”

Alexander Ovechkin (1985) Russian ice hockey player

Canadian Press (October 27, 2006) "More than just the next superstar - Ovechkin's zest for life contagious with Capitals", The Record (Kitchner, Ontario, Canada), p. D2.

Casey Stengel photo
Joe Zawinul photo
Theo de Raadt photo
Pierre Monteux photo
Ann Coulter photo
Gabe Newell photo

“C'mon, people, you can't show the player a really big bomb and not let them blow it up.”

Gabe Newell (1962) American computer programmer and businessman

Valve, Valve Software, Valve Software, 2010-06-09, 2010-06-09 http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/people.html,

“In many if not most cases, Cuban players haven’t been busts so much as they’ve been systematically over-hyped during the signing process, which led to unrealistic expectations around Major League Baseball and in the media. The vast majority of Cuba’s truly elite players have either stayed in Cuba for their entire careers or left Cuba too late to have a meaningful MLB career.”

Joe Kehoskie (1973) American baseball agent

On the success rate and perception of Cuban baseball defectors in MLB, from the Miami Herald article "Yoenis Cespedes may be the great unknown for Miami Marlins" http://web.archive.org/web/20120218180037/http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/12/v-fullstory/2636817/yoenis-cespedes-may-be-the-great.html by Clark Spencer (12 February 2012)

Anita Sarkeesian photo
Charles Stross photo
Johan Cruyff photo
Hideo Kojima photo
Roberto Clemente photo

“Jackie, what is the matter with you? You did not lose this ball game. We all lost it. No one man loses any ball game. You remember that. You are a good ball player. We need you to play shortstop. Come now, get dressed, let's go out and have a steak.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

English translation of pep talk given on August 21, 1971, after Hernandez' 6th-inning miscue—scored as a hit—had contributed significantly to Cincinnati's 6-3 come-from-behind victory over Pittsburgh http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1971/B08210CIN1971.htm, as quoted in "Playing Games: Bad Day in Cincy" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=iG8mAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Bm0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5765%2C1664013&dq=clemente-began-talk-spanish by Charley Feeney, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Tuesday, September 28, 1971), p. 23
Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1971</big>

Ryan C. Gordon photo
Fred Shero photo
Larry Bird photo

“Larry is different than people think. He really loves the game and is really smart. He has the innate ability to focus on what's important and has a great feel for players. He knows how to deal with people. He's direct and definite. I think the players appreciate that.”

Larry Bird (1956) basketball player and coach

Donnie Walsh — reported in Sam Smith (February 8, 2004) "Bird sets fast pace - Hall of Fame player and former coach Larry Bird finds 'every day's exciting' in his first go-around as general manager of the Indiana Pacers", Chicago Tribune, p. 11.
About

Boris Johnson photo

“I'm a rugby player, really, and I knew I was going to get to him, and when he was about two yards away I just put my head down. There was no malice. I was going for the ball with my head, which I understand is a legitimate move in soccer.”

Boris Johnson (1964) British politician, historian and journalist

Ed Harris, "Boris bites Herr legs...: The MP for Henley does his bit for Anglo-German diplomacy", Evening Standard, 4 May 2006, p. 9.
On his tackle on German midfielder Maurizio Gaudino in a charity football match.
2000s, 2006

Rio Ferdinand photo
Paul Simonon photo
Morgan Tsvangirai photo

“The editorial policies of the state newspapers and the state broadcaster has remained partisan and unreformed, and the media field remains dominated by the same partisan state players.”

Morgan Tsvangirai (1952–2018) former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai Slams Pro-Mugabe Media http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/southern/Zimbabwes-Tsvangirai-Slams-Pro-Mugabe-Media-135733603.html

Paras Khadka photo

“We had bunch of young players and every individual performed when team needed the most. Even junior players stood up on couple of occasions and that is a good sign for future of Nepali cricket.”

Paras Khadka (1987) Nepalese Cricket team captain

Cricketers get heroes welcome The Himalayan Times; February 2018 https://thehimalayantimes.com/sports/cricketers-get-heroes-welcome/

Alexander Ovechkin photo
Peter Greenaway photo
Raúl González photo

“For me I would say my favourite players in Europe are Raúl and Figo.”

Raúl González (1977) Spanish footballer

May 2007
Zinedine Zidane (12/02/04)
Hitzfeld “It’s The Perfect Time To Sign Raúl" http://www.soccer.com/blog/2007/02/hitzfeld_its_the_perfect_time.blog, Goal.com, February 16, 2007</ref>
About

Mukesh Ambani photo
David Gilmour photo
Larry Bird photo

“When thou was a player, I didn't expect my teammates to play the way I did. I did expect them to work hard hard every day and get better. And I never learned anything by losing.”

Larry Bird (1956) basketball player and coach

Don Wade (October 18, 1997) "A Bird on the Bench is Worth 12,252 In Roberts Stadium Seats", The Evansville Courier, p. C1.

Theo Walcott photo

“I trained with the lad last season at Southampton for two or three weeks. In all the years I played there was never anything I saw on a training pitch that took my breath away, but he was doing things on the pitch that made me stand up and say 'Wow'. He could go on and make a better player than Wayne Rooney.”

Theo Walcott (1989) English association football player

Matt Le Tissier, former England footballer, 2006 ( Source http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=400107&in_page_id=1779)
About

Babe Ruth photo
Dhyan Chand photo

“Nowadays I hear of the princely comforts provided for national teams traveling overseas, and fuss players raise if they happen to miss even a cup of tea! When we used to travel the name of our country and the game were the only two things that mattered.”

Dhyan Chand (1905–1979) Indian field hockey player

During India’s title defense at the 1936 Berlin Olympics when he captained the hockey team to victory in the Olympics in page=59
Quote, Olympics - The India Story

Satoru Iwata photo

“Some argue that our success is short-lived and temporary. So, we now need to make efforts to constantly expand the player base by offering services and titles that can appeal, not only to those who have never played games, but also to those who play them hard.”

Satoru Iwata (1959–2015) Japanese video game programmer and businessman

Japan's Nintendo wins exclusive deal for Capcom's Monster Hunter 3 title http://www.sharewatch.com/story.php?storynumber=49593

Roberto Clemente photo
Arsène Wenger photo

“We need a player who will be a fox in the box and on the pitch. We need a player like Owen is for Liverpool.”

Arsène Wenger (1949) French footballer and manager

Thierry Henry, in an interview after the 2001 FA Cup final. (13 May 2001) http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/1329408.stm
Misattributed

Judith Sheindlin photo

“(To a football player) If you lie to me, I'll mop the floor with you worse than anyone who's ever tackled you.”

Judith Sheindlin (1942) American lawyer, judge, television personality, and author

Quotes from Judge Judy cases, Being cocky

Alex Salmond photo
Joe Satriani photo

“…Is the greatest guitar player in the world.”

Joe Satriani (1956) American guitar player

Steve Vai about Satriani, as quoted in Joe Satriani : The Satch Tapes (1993).

Ben Jonson photo

“Though the most be players, some must be spectators.”

Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English writer

The Works of Ben Jonson, Second Folio (1640), Timber: or Discoveries

Daniel Levitin photo
George Eliot photo
Steve McManaman photo

“Talent is secondary to whether players are confident.”

Jack Gibson (1929–2008) Australian rugby league player and coach

Gibson often put trust above pure playing ability when selecting teams.

Ernest Gellner photo
Allen West (politician) photo
Marcel Duchamp photo
Alexander Ovechkin photo

“He's one of the worst practice players I've played with. He rests and when the game comes, he flips the switch on. He plays a dominant physical style, so I think he just relaxes in practice and as a veteran player, I admire that.”

Alexander Ovechkin (1985) Russian ice hockey player

Jeff Friesen, interview in Canadian Press (November 1, 2006) "The great debate rages on - Ovechkin vs. Phaneuf: Which one has greater impact for their team?", The Record (Kitchner, Ontario, Canada), p. E1.
About

Bud Selig photo
Tom Crean (basketball coach) photo

“Players that learn the value of hard work, commitment, teamwork, and sacrifice are the ones that make their teams great.”

Tom Crean (basketball coach) (1966) American college basketball coach

Foreword to Winning Basketball : Techniques and Drills for Playing Better Offensive Basketball (2004) by Ralph L. Pim
Context: I am a firm believer that you can't have people in your program who just want to win; you must have people who are committed to winning. Players that learn the value of hard work, commitment, teamwork, and sacrifice are the ones that make their teams great.

“After a while one is embarrassed not so much for them as for poetry, which is for these poor poets one more of the openings against which everyone in the end beats his brains out; and one finds it unbearable that poetry should be so hard to write — a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey in which there is for most of the players no tail, no donkey, not even a booby prize.”

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

"Verse Chronicle," The Nation (23 February 1946); reprinted as "Bad Poets" in Poetry and the Age (1953)
General sources
Context: Sometimes it is hard to criticize, one wants only to chronicle. The good and mediocre books come in from week to week, and I put them aside and read them and think of what to say; but the "worthless" books come in day after day, like the cries and truck sounds from the street, and there is nothing that anyone could think of that is good enough for them. In the bad type of thin pamphlets, in hand-set lines on imported paper, people's hard lives and hopeless ambitions have expressed themselves more directly and heartbreakingly than they have ever expressed in any work of art: it is as if the writers had sent you their ripped-out arms and legs, with "This is a poem" scrawled on them in lipstick. After a while one is embarrassed not so much for them as for poetry, which is for these poor poets one more of the openings against which everyone in the end beats his brains out; and one finds it unbearable that poetry should be so hard to write — a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey in which there is for most of the players no tail, no donkey, not even a booby prize.

Phil Esposito photo

“The importance of teammates is the thing I appreciate the most from those years. I was a lucky guy. There is nothing better than good teammates. I don't care what anybody says, you can't do it alone. It takes a good team for you to be a good player, and the same goes for playing on a bad team.”

Phil Esposito (1942) Canadian ice hockey player

I see Vincent Lecavalier play all the time. He gives it his all, but it comes down to your teammates,
Quoted in Andrew Podnieks, "One on One with Phil Esposito," http://www.legendsofhockey.net/html/spot_oneononep198401.htm Legends of Hockey.net (2002-02-18).
Esposito refers to his playing years.

Kumar Sangakkara photo

“India always seem to be the more mature side in World Cups than Pakistan, no matter how many senior players are there in their squad”

Kumar Sangakkara (1977) Sri Lankan cricketer

Sangakkara on how Pakistan is a better team than India, quoted on Sports.ndtv.com, "Why Pakistan Can Never Beat India in World Cups - Kumar Sangakkara, Sunil Gavaskar Explain" http://sports.ndtv.com/icc-world-twenty20-2016/news/256674-why-pakistan-can-never-beat-india-in-world-cups-kumar-sangakkara-sunil-gavaskar-explain, March 21, 2016.
Context: India always plays a big tournament in a very settled manner. They trust their players and are always consistent in their selection. They always approach a game with a sense of confidence in their abilities and the selection they have made. When it comes to Pakistan, they come to tournaments unsettled, with a lot of controversy and lots of doubts over selection. There seems to be lot of talk even within the team and around the team, even by the management. When it comes to crucial rivalry and the stakes are high, India seems to control their emotion and execute their game-plan. Whenever Pakistan play India, the former seems to be rattled. India always seem to be the more mature side in World Cups than Pakistan, no matter how many senior players are there in their squad.

William S. Burroughs photo

“The middle class is getting the squeeze, and only one in a thousand will go up. The Big Holders are the house, and the small farmers are the players. The player goes broke if he keeps on playing, and the farmer has to play or lose to the Government by default.”

Junkie (1953)
Context: A lot of people made quick easy money during the War and for several years after. Any business was good, just as any stock is good on a rising market. People thought they were sharp operators, when actually they were just riding a lucky streak. Now the Valley is in a losing streak and only the big operators can ride it out. In the Valley economic laws work out like a formula in high school algebra, since there is no human element to interfere. The very rich are getting richer and all the others are going broke. The big holders are not shrewd or ruthless or enterprising. They don't have to say or think anything. All they have to do is sit and the money comes pouring in. You have to get up with the Big Holders or drop out and take any job they hand you. The middle class is getting the squeeze, and only one in a thousand will go up. The Big Holders are the house, and the small farmers are the players. The player goes broke if he keeps on playing, and the farmer has to play or lose to the Government by default.

Sophocles photo

“A wise player ought to accept his throws and score them, not bewail his luck.”

Sophocles (-496–-406 BC) ancient Greek tragedian

Fragment 947.
Phædra
Source: Pearson, A.C. (1917). The Fragments of Sophocles (with additional notes from the papers of Sir R.C. Jebb and W.G. Headlam). Vol. 3. 3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1917. Retrieved on 2017-01-06 from https://archive.org/details/fragmentseditedw03sophuoft.

Roberto Clemente photo

“He’s a take-charge catcher. He bosses the player throwing the ball – I tell you, that kid amazes me.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "The Scoreboard: Best I’ve Seen, Clemente Says of Jerry May," by Les Biederman, in The Pittsburgh Press (Tuesday, July 18, 1967), p. 59
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1967</big>
Context: “I do not read too much these days about Jerry May, but he is worthy of a story. He is the best defensive catcher I have seen in my 13 years with the Pirates. In fact, I have not seen many better defensive catchers anywhere in my time in baseball. A story now would do him good, make him feel appreciated. How you say, the time is appropriate?" Clemente always knew May could catch but May has opened his eyes in the formidable way he blocks the plate with a runner and the ball both bearing down on him. "He’s a take-charge catcher. He bosses the player throwing the ball – I tell you, that kid amazes me."

Arsène Wenger photo

“But there are not many players in the world who will make a real difference.”

Arsène Wenger (1949) French footballer and manager

Joint Interview with The Times and Daily Mail (2009)
Context: OK, I’m not against that [spending £100m]. If you have the money and you find the one player who can make you win and make the difference, no matter how expensive he is you should do it. But there are not many players in the world who will make a real difference.

Aristotle photo

“Life seems to be common even to plants, but we are seeking what is peculiar to man. Let us exclude, therefore, the life of nutrition and growth. Next there would be a life of perception, but it also seems to be common even to the horse, the ox, and every animal. There remains, then, an active life of the element that has a rational principle; of this, one part has such a principle in the sense of being obedient to one, the other in the sense of possessing one and exercising thought. And, as "life of the rational element" also has two meanings, we must state that life in the sense of activity is what we mean; for this seems to be the more proper sense of the term. Now if the function of man is an activity of soul which follows or implies a rational principle, and if we say "so-and-so" and "a good so-and-so" have a function which is the same in kind, e. g. a lyre, and a good lyre-player, and so without qualification in all cases, eminence in respect of goodness being added to the name of the function (for the function of a lyre-player is to play the lyre, and that of a good lyre-player is to do so well): if this is the case, and we state the function of man to be a certain kind of life, and this to be an activity or actions of the soul implying a rational principle, and the function of a good man to be the good and noble performance of these, and if any action is well performed when it is performed in accordance with the appropriate excellence: if this is the case, human good turns out to be activity of soul in accordance with virtue, and if there are more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete.
But we must add "in a complete life."”

For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.
Book I, 1098a; §7 as translated by W. D. Ross
Variants:
One swallow does not a summer make.
As quoted in A History of Ancient Philosophy: From the Beginning to Augustine (1998) by Karsten Friis Johansen, p. 382
One swallow (they say) no Sommer doth make.
John Davies, in The Scourge of Folly (1611)
One swallow yet did never summer make.
As rendered by William Painter in Chaucer Newly Painted (1623)
One swallow does not make a spring, nor does one sunny day; similarly, one day or a short time does not make a man blessed and happy.
As translated in Philosophical Grounds of Rationality: Intentions, Categories, Ends (1988), by Richard E. Grandy and ‎Richard Warner, p. 483
Nicomachean Ethics

Roberto Clemente photo

“Some players are wild on the field and off the field. They are made to look like heroes. I get nothing but sarcasm. And people take me for a fool.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As paraphrased and quoted in "Roberto Clemente, The Pirates' Thorobred: He proved his class in the Series" by Joe Heiling, in The Houston Post, circa Fall 1971; reprinted in Baseball Digest (January 1972)
Other, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1971</big>
Context: He is a proud man. Proud of Puerto Rico, his native land, and proud to be a professional baseball player. He is a strong believer in the dignity of man and that all people, no matter their color, should work together. "I don't want to be a big shot. From head to toes, Roberto Clemente is good as Richard Nixon. I believe that. And I think that every man should believe that about himself. I am not dumb. I went to school. I made grades. But when I came here, I couldn't speak English. All I could say was, 'Me, Roberto Clemente.' Some of them laugh and say it sounded like, 'Me Tarzan, you Jane.'" He is a self-made man. He took his natural talents and made the most of them, in baseball and in his personal life. He's never abused them. "Some players are wild on the field and off the field. They are made to look like heroes. I get nothing but sarcasm. And people take me for a fool."

“Some players upon plaintive strings
Publish their wistfulness abroad;
I have not spoken of these things,
Save to one man, and unto God.”

Lionel Johnson (1867–1902) English poet

"The Precept of Silence"
Context: p>The winds are sometimes sad to me,
The starry spaces, full of fear;
Mine is the sorrow on the sea,
And mine the sigh of places drear. Some players upon plaintive strings
Publish their wistfulness abroad;
I have not spoken of these things,
Save to one man, and unto God.</p

“It must be understood that a fair game may be distinctly unfavorable to the player.”

William Feller (1906–1970) Croatian-American mathematician

Source: An Introduction To Probability Theory And Its Applications (Third Edition), Chapter X, Law Of large Numbers, p. 249.
Context: Much harm was done by the misleading suggestive power of this name. It must be understood that a fair game may be distinctly unfavorable to the player.

Marie-Louise von Franz photo

“When a person has inwardly struggled with his anima or with her animus for a sufficiently long time and has reached the point where he or she is no longer identified with it in an unconscious fashion, the unconscious once again takes on a new symbolic form in relating with the ego. It then appears in the form of the psychic core, that is, the Self. In the dreams of a woman, the Self, when it personifies itself, manifests as a superior female figure, for example, as a priestess, a sorceress, an earth mother, or a nature or love goddess. In the dreams of a man, it takes the form of some-one who confers initiations (an Indian guru), a wise old man, a nature spirit, a hero, and so forth. An Austrian fairy tale recounts the following:
A king posts a soldier to keep watch on the coffin of a cursed black princess who has been bewitched. It is known that every night she comes to life and tears the guard to pieces. In despair, not wanting to die, the soldier runs away into the forest. There he meets an "old zither player who was, however, the Lord God himself," and this old musician advises him how to hide in different places in the church and what to do so that the black princess cannot find him. With the help of this miraculous old man, the soldier succeeds in evading the princess's attack and in this way is able to redeem her. He marries her and becomes the king.
The old zither player who is really God himself, expressed in psychological language, is a symbol of the Self. He helps the soldier, that is, the ego, to overcome the destructive anima figure and even to redeem it. In a woman, as we have said, the Self takes on a feminine form.”

Marie-Louise von Franz (1915–1998) Swiss psychologist and scholar

Source: Archetypal Dimensions of the Psyche (1994), The Self, p. 324 - 325

Charles Mingus photo

“I, myself, came to enjoy the players who didn't only just swing but who invented new rhythmic patterns, along with new melodic concepts.”

Charles Mingus (1922–1979) American jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader

What Is A Jazz Composer? (1971)
Context: Now, whether there is feeling or not depends upon what your environment or your association is or whatever you may have in common with the player. If you feel empathy for his personal outlook, you naturally feel him musically more than some other environmental and musical opposite who is, in a way. beyond you.
I, myself, came to enjoy the players who didn't only just swing but who invented new rhythmic patterns, along with new melodic concepts. And those people are: Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Parker, who is the greatest genius of all to me because he changed the whole era around. But there is no need to compare composers. If you like Beethoven, Bach or Brahms, that's okay. They were all pencil composers. I always wanted to be a spontaneous composer. I thought I was, although no one's mentioned that. I mean critics or musicians. Now, what I'm getting at is that I know I'm a composer. I marvel at composition, at people who are able to take diatonic scales, chromatics, 12-tone scales, or even quarter-tone scales. I admire anyone who can come up with something original. But not originality alone, because there can be originality in stupidity, with no musical description of any emotion or any beauty the man has seen, or any kind of life he has lived.

Angelo Mathews photo

“Angelo's such a world-class player because he's so adaptable and he's got such a strong defence as well.”

Angelo Mathews (1987) Sri Lankan cricketer

It was a plan we wanted to play out and obviously when he started walking across his stumps a little bit, Wags decided that at some stage he was going to try and bowl the miracle ball and try and hit the base of leg stump. In the end it obviously split his defence and went on to the stumps.
Brendon McCullum on Mathews getting out by a ball by Wager of New Zealand, Stuff.co.nz (December 14, 2015), "Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews is kicking himself after self-inflicted damage" http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/75091654/sri-lankan-captain-angelo-mathews-is-kicking-himself-after-selfinflicted-damage
About

Roberto Clemente photo

“He insisted the other players allow me to take batting practice and he helped me. He put a bat behind my foot and made sure I didn't drag my foot. Willie Mays also helped me. He told me not to allow the pitchers to show me up. He suggested I get mean and if the pitchers knocked me down, get up and hit the ball. Show them.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As paraphrased and quoted in "The Scoreboard: Clemente's Only Regret? One Pennant" by Les Biederman, in The Pittsburgh Press (Sunday, March 31, 1968), Sec. 4, Pg. 3
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1968</big>
Context: The best advice and most help he ever received came from Buster Clarkson, an American player, when he was in Puerto Rico."I played for his team and I was just a kid," Clemente recalled. "He insisted the other players allow me to take batting practice and he helped me. He put a bat behind my foot and made sure I didn't drag my foot. Willie Mays also helped me. He told me not to allow the pitchers to show me up. He suggested I get mean and if the pitchers knocked me down, get up and hit the ball. Show them."

Vince Lombardi photo
Pelé photo
Pelé photo
Pelé photo
Pelé photo
Pelé photo
Pelé photo
Pelé photo
LeBron James photo
Roberto Baggio photo

“Roberto Baggio was the best Italian fantasista; he was better than Meazza and Boniperti, and he was amongst the greatest of all time, right behind Maradona, Pelé, and maybe Cruyff. Without the injury problems and the difficulties with his knees, he would have been the very best player in history.”

Roberto Baggio (1967) Italian association football player

Carlo Mazzone
Source: Roberto Baggio: il più grande del calcio italiano, calciopro.com, Italian, 9 October 2014 http://www.calciopro.com/calcio-italiano/roberto-baggio-il-piu-grande-del-calcio-italiano/,

Roberto Baggio photo

“Roberto Baggio was the best player I ever played against; he made football look very easy.”

Roberto Baggio (1967) Italian association football player

Matthew Le Tissier, Matthew Le Tissier Interview: "Roberto Baggio Was The Best Player I Ever Played Against" http://www.thehardtackle.com/2012/matthew-le-tissier-interview/, The Hard Tackle, 21 June 2012. Retrieved on 9 February 2014.

Johnny Rivers photo
Newton Lee photo
Rohit Sharma photo

“Rohit has got all the shots to be a Virender Sehwag. He has been dynamic, has got three double hundreds and already has a 150 to his name (in ongoing series against South Africa). He is a good player of spin and picks up fast bowling really well.”

Rohit Sharma (1987) Indian cricketer

[Rohit Sharma has all qualities to be next Sehwag: Graeme Smith, https://www.news18.com/cricketnext/news/rohit-sharma-has-all-qualities-to-be-next-sehwag-graeme-smith-1154359.html, News18, 20 October 2018]
About him

Algis Budrys photo
Albert Einstein photo
Dhyan Chand photo

“You and your boys have done wonderfully to foster the game of hockey in our country I hope that you will return to India with good impressions and with the same feeling of friendship to the German hockey players as we feel towards you…Tell them how much we all admired the sill and performance of the prefect hockey they have shown us.”

Dhyan Chand (1905–1979) Indian field hockey player

George Evers, President of the Deutsch Hockey Board and the International Hockey Federation after India won the Olympics at Berlin in a message to Dhyan Chand quoted in "India and the Olympics" in page=64

Dhyan Chand photo
Napoleon Hill photo
Eric Cantona photo

“He was the only player I saw who the manager never had a go at. We all went to a film premiere and were told to wear black ties. Eric turned up in a cream lemon suit with Nike trainers. The manager told him that he looked fantastic!”

Eric Cantona (1966) French actor and association football player

http://www.insideworldsoccer.com/2009/10/fergie-never-had-go-at-cantona-andy.html
Andy Cole, former Manchester United teammate of Cantona.

Garry Kasparov photo

“For inspiration I look to those great players who consistently found original ways to shock their opponents. None did this better than the eighth world champion, Mikhail Tal.”

Garry Kasparov (1963) former chess world champion

The "Magician of Riga" rose to become champion in 1960 at age twenty-three and became famous for his aggressive, volatile play.
Part I, Chapter 5, Talent, p. 60-61
2000s, How Life Imitates Chess (2007)

Rohit Sharma photo

“Rohit has got all the shots to be a Virender Sehwag. He has been dynamic, has got two double hundreds and already has a 150 to his name (in ongoing series against South Africa). He is a good player of spin and picks up fast bowling really well.”

Rohit Sharma (1987) Indian cricketer

[Rohit Sharma has all qualities to be next Sehwag: Graeme Smith, https://www.news18.com/cricketnext/news/rohit-sharma-has-all-qualities-to-be-next-sehwag-graeme-smith-1154359.html, News18, 20 October 2018]
About him

Virat Kohli photo

“Sachin Tendulkar was obviously one of those rare players that the world has seen. If Virat continues to work hard and do the things that he has been doing now in the years to come, then he could be the next Sachin Tendulkar. It will be a proud moment for me if that happens because we were backing a young Kohli since his early days. It is so good to see him flourish and express himself and I am happy for him. Hats off!”

Virat Kohli (1988) Indian cricket player

Veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh has described Virat Kohli as a ‘ champion player’, insisting that the star batsman could become the next Sachin Tendulkar if he continues to produce match-winning performances consistently in the coming future, quoted on Cricket Country, "Virat Kohli could became next Sachin Tendulkar: Harbhajan Singh" http://www.cricketcountry.com/news/virat-kohli-could-became-the-next-sachin-tendulkar-harbhajan-singh-424324, March 29, 2016.
About him

Sania Mirza photo

“She is a very talented player. I see a very good future for her.”

Sania Mirza (1986) Indian tennis player

Serena Williams in 2006
India's most wanted

Sania Mirza photo
Bobby Robson photo
Thiago Silva photo

“He has the quickness, he has the ability on the ball. Thiago Silva is an incredible player and extremely intelligent.”

Thiago Silva (1984) Brazilian footballer

José Mourinho (Chelsea), 2014 http://www.sambafoot.com/fr/informations/58637_jose_mourinho_est_fan_de_thiago_silva.html
From coaches and club directors

Thiago Silva photo

“Thiago Silva is a top player, who has played at a very high level. Top clubs hardly ever lose that type of player.”

Thiago Silva (1984) Brazilian footballer

Pep Guardiola, 2011 http://globoesporte.globo.com/futebol/mundial-de-clubes/noticia/2011/11/guardiola-trata-neymar-como-mais-um-bom-jogador-e-elogia-thiago-silva.html
From coaches and club directors