Quotes about player
page 7

“A player like Thiago Silva is impossible to replace.”

Thiago Silva (1984) Brazilian footballer

Paolo Maldini, 2012 http://www.football-italia.net/19914/maldini-thiago-sale-sign-weakness From former and current footballers

“I think that Thiago Silva is the best defender in the world. It is incredible how good he really is. Thiago Silva is part of a new generation of phenomenal players who are perhaps born once every 100 years.”

Thiago Silva (1984) Brazilian footballer

Pippo Inzaghi, 2011 http://www.football-italia.net/node/5903 From former and current footballers

World, Thinking, Parting

“He’s very elegant, he commits few fouls because he’s always first to every ball and this is an important gift. He’s also fast and has good technique and these are important skills for a defender. Italian football puts players to the test and he immediately showed he was up to the task and ready to play for Milan, at the San Siro. Playing with the kind of continuity he had this season proves he really belongs to the elite.”

Thiago Silva (1984) Brazilian footballer

Franco Baresi, 2011 https://www.acmilan.com/en/news/show/134347 From former and current footballers

Football, Season

“A few months back Major Terry and his pet student, Drosen, had brought in a guy from San Diego to play chess with me. I’d had no idea that he was rated and was really good, so I’d beaten his ass real fast. He’d gotten all mad at Major Terry and Drosen for not telling him that I was as good as I was. He’d accused them of setting him up to publicly embarrass him. I’d had no idea what the big fuss was all about. I hadn’t even realized that there was such a thing as tournaments and championships for chess just like we had in wrestling. I’d quit playing chess at school after that incident. Now I only played at home with my dad’s older friends, Roberto and Salvador Montoya, who’d both been very good chess players in Mexico City. I beat Roberto almost all the time, but his older brother Salvador beat me pretty regularly. And I’d recently been told that Salvador had been so good that he’d once gone to Cuba to play and that he’d come in third among some of the best international players in the world.”

Victor Villaseñor (1940) American writer

Crazy Loco Love: A Memoir (2008)

World, School, Guy, Home

“Zakir bhai is indeed a phenomenon of our times. It is not surprising that young tabla players are inspired or influenced by him but cloning will only give them a temporary impetus.”

Zakir Hussain (musician) (1951) Indian tabla player, musical producer, film actor and composer

Pandit Nayan Ghosh in Who’s interested in a second-hand Zakir Hussain?, 2 November 2013, 12 December 2013, The Hindu http://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/whos-interested-in-a-secondhand-zakir-hussain/article5308342.ece, About Zakir Hussain

Time

“The peerless North Indian tabla player…the blur of his fingers rivals the beat of a hummingbird’s wings.”

Zakir Hussain (musician) (1951) Indian tabla player, musical producer, film actor and composer

The New York Times review after his 2009 Carnegie Hall performance quoted in "Zakir Hussain and Master Musicians of India".
About Zakir Hussain

“Along with the steady diet sitar, sarod, and tabla, several new instruments and players came to my attention. The first of these was Ustad Bismillah Khan, master of the sonorous double-reed instrument known as shehnai. This beautiful wind instrument, with finger holes and a bell-shaped opening at the bottom, sounded to me like a hybrid of soprano saxophone and oboe, and Bismillah Khan’s tone very much influenced what Coltrane and Terry Riley would do with the soprano sax. Primarily used at weddings, the shehnai had been rejected as a classical instrument until Bismillah Khan elevated it to a higher status among listeners. His unique fingertips and sublime breath control produced the necessary range of sounds for raga making shehnai one of the more popular instruments in North India.”

Bismillah Khan (1916–2006) Indian musician

Peter Lavezzoli in his bo [Lavezzoli, Peter, The Dawn of Indian Music in the West, http://books.google.com/books?id=OSZKCXtx-wEC&pg=PA375, 24 April 2006, Continuum, 978-0-8264-1815-9, 32]

Making love, Beauty, Wedding

“The personal, as everyone’s so fucking fond of saying, is political. So if some idiot politician, some power player, tries to execute policies that harm you or those you care about, take it personally. Get angry. The Machinery of Justice will not serve you here—it is slow and cold, and it is theirs, hardware and soft-. Only the little people suffer at the hands of Justice; the creatures of power slide out from under with a wink and a grin. If you want justice, you will have to claw it from them. Make it personal. Do as much damage as you can. Get your message across. That way you stand a far better chance of being taken seriously next time. Of being considered dangerous. And make no mistake about this: being taken seriously, being considered dangerous, marks the difference—the only difference in their eyes—between players and little people. Players they will make deals with. Little people they liquidate. And time and again they cream your liquidation, your displacement, your torture and brutal execution with the ultimate insult that it’s just business, it’s politics, it’s the way of the world, it’s a tough life, and that it’s nothing personal. Well, fuck them. Make it personal.”

Richard K. Morgan book Altered Carbon

Source: Altered Carbon (2002), Chapter 15 (pp. 184-185, quoting the fictional work Things I Should Have Learned by Now, Volume II, written by story character Quellcrist Falconer)

Life, People, World, Making love

“He was a good sportsman too. He was an excellent fast bowler and a good fielder. He was also a very good kabaddi player.”

Rajinikanth (1950) Indian actor

Ramachandra Rao, whom Shivaji affectionately used to call Kaddi (stick) Ramu because he was as thin as a rod.
You can see God in him at times (22 December 1999)

“A player from Man City showed half of his ass for two seconds and it was a big nightmare. But this is a real nightmare.”

José Mourinho (1963) Portuguese association football player and manager

Comparing Petr Cech's nasty injury with Joey Barton's bottom-baring antics. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/funny_old_game/7004282.stm Chelsea FC

“Dzagoev plays football not for fame and money, but because, football is his life. It is rare today that a victory is more important for a player, then the prize-money for it. But Alan - is exactly that case.”

Alan Dzagoev (1990) Russian association football player

Igor Rodkin, 2008. http://www.sports.ru/football/5862197.html

Life, Money, Victory, Football

“Lancashire have brought in a player with a great reputation in the format who will add firepower to our top order. He is an exciting player and excellent fielder, just what we need for Twenty20 cricket.”

Lou Vincent (1978) New Zealand cricketer

Mike Watkinson (2008), quoted in [Lancashire sign Lou Vincent, Cricinfo staff, http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/england/content/story/353666.html, Cricinfo, 2008-06-05, 2008-06-05]

“Javon Ringer is a special player and a special young man. He has incredible heart and courage. After suffering what appeared to be a season-ending knee injury, Javon willed himself back onto the playing field. He worked his tail off, so he could go to the field and compete with his teammates.”

Javon Ringer (1987) All-American college football player, professional football player, running back

Former MSU coach John L. Smith, quoted here http://msuspartans.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/112106aaa.html

Courage, Suffering, Appearance, Heart

“My offensive player of the year is going to be Javon Ringer for the way he has carried his team and the workhorse load that he’s carried all year long. Everyone knows he’s getting the football yet he continues to produce.”

Javon Ringer (1987) All-American college football player, professional football player, running back

Charles Davis of the Big Ten Network, quoted at Ringer 23.com (undated)

Way, Football

“You can hit him and hit him and hit him and he just keeps on coming. I think that I learned a long time ago that one attribute that great players have is stamina, and he obviously has great stamina.”

Javon Ringer (1987) All-American college football player, professional football player, running back

Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis, quoted at Ringer 23.com (undated)

Thinking, Learning, Time

“He’s total team player - it’s not about him, and you can’t say enough about him as a person aside from his athletic abilities. But it’s the person in him, it’s the intangibles within him that make him the back that he is. There are other guys who are just as explosive and just as fast, but it’s the things inside of him that make him special.”

Javon Ringer (1987) All-American college football player, professional football player, running back

MSU head coach Mark Dantonio, quoted at Ringer 23.com (undated)

Making love, Guy, Personality

“The truly great English midfield player of the generation. Didn’t just play the game, he thought about the game. You could see every pass, every decision, was based on his intelligence and understanding.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/andrea-pirlo-dream-xi-paul-scholes-the-only-englishman-as-juventus-star-leaves-out-cristiano-ronaldo-in-favour-of-pippo-inzaghi-9992885.html
Andrea Pirlo

Game, Intelligence, Understanding, Decision

“For me, Paul Scholes is on the same level as Ronaldo. The real Ronaldo, not Cristiano. I always thought he was a great player but after I played alongside him I realised he was Manchester United’s greatest player of all time. He did his talking on the pitch which I respected most.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkBSmp4IhAE
Fabien Barthez

Time

“For me, Paul Scholes has been the best midfield player in the Premier League. By a mile. He has the lot. He scores and creates goals, he can pass the ball, he can head it, and rounds all this off with a competitive streak.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/my-all-time-xi-alan-shearer-1505383
Alan Shearer

“Paul Scholes was always unbelievably talented. Quiet. And dirty. When he got his tackle right, it was a great tackle. But when he got it wrong, he could kill someone. He was so talented and a player I feel honoured to have played with.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25184865
David Beckham

Feeling

“Scholes was England’s best football player. It was impossible to take the ball from him, and he never mishit a pass. He did not belong on the left flank but that’s where we needed him most. He had played on the left in the qualifying campaign, and sometimes even at Manchester United.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/england/10426976/Sven-Goran-Erikssons-book-Paul-Scholes-was-Englands-best-football-player-but-was-held-back-by-asthma.html
Sven-Göran Eriksson

Football

“The best illustration I can give of his talent is that at Manchester United there was always a possession drill in training designed to develop our passing ability, which might be three players against another three players, or six versus six, or nine versus nine. But no matter what the numbers were, the side with Paul Scholes on their team would always win by keeping the most possession.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2203846/Paul-Scholes-simply-best-English-player-generation-Gary-Neville.html
Gary Neville

Training

“United always had many amazing players, but whenever we faced them we were always, always, always scared of what Paul Scholes could do. Ask anyone from that old Arsenal team, they will tell you the same. If you let him play, he can kill you, and for me he was so underrated. The way he plays: one touch, arriving late into the box, the way he strikes the ball, his vision, his passing. Incredible. I know people used to give him some stick for his tackling, but I liked that. He put his foot in, showed some character, had a go, but I liked that about him too. For me he is one of the best midfielders I have ever seen.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/henry-i-was-scared-of-incredible-scholes
Thierry Henry

People, Way, Box

“If you ask footballers to pick out the player they most admire, so many of them will pick Paul Scholes. His passing and shooting is of the highest level and he’s the most consistent and naturally gifted player we’ve had for a long, long time.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://www.sportskeeda.com/2011/07/01/paul-scholes-the-ginger-prince/
Alan Shearer

Nature, Time, Football

“He sees the game unlike any other player.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/3611242/What-football-said-about-Paul-Scholes.html#ixzz1NyhISKZi
Terry Venables

Game

“I’m more an admirer of Paul Scholes than I am of Ronaldo. Ronaldo is a fantastic player, but he has 10 other great players around him every week…Scholes is one of the most complete footballers I’ve ever seen. His one-touch play is phenomenal. Whenever I have played against him, I never felt I could get close to him.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://redflagflyinghigh.com/2011/05/blogs/scholes-tribute-the-worlds-top-players-on-the-ginger-prince/2
Eiður Guðjohnsen

Football

“There is not a better midfield player in the world.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://redflagflyinghigh.com/2011/05/blogs/scholes-tribute-the-worlds-top-players-on-the-ginger-prince/2
Sam Allardyce

World

“Paul Scholes has been the best England midfield player for 30-odd years. You’d probably have to go back to Bobby Charlton to find someone who could do as much as Scholes. When the ball arrives at his feet he could tell you where every player on that pitch is at that moment. His awareness is superb.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://thepeoplesperson.com/2013/11/05/what-made-paul-scholes-so-special-30928/
Gordan Strachan

“I just love Paul Scholes. He’s been the best footballer in our division for the last ten years. He’s a a wonderful player. If they get hold of him and stop him from playing I think Chelsea will beat them.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://www.talksport.co.uk/sports-news/football/premier-league/6395/0/exclusive-%E2%80%93-wilkins-%E2%80%98chelsea-will-beat-united-if-they-stop-scholes%E2%80%99
Ray Wilkins

Love, Making love, Thinking, Football

“I’d go for Scholesy as the club’s greatest ever player. I’ve seen him do things that no other player can do. The way he can control the tempo of games, and his range of passing, are both incredible. We’ve seen over the years that players just haven’t been able to get near him. And you can’t forget his goals either.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://www.talksport.co.uk/sports-news/football/premier-league/4935/9/giggs-hails-scholes-man-uniteds-greatest-ever-player
Ryan Giggs, 2011

Way, Game, Forgetting

“Without any doubt the best player in the Premiership has to be Scholes. He knows how to do everything, and he is one who directs the way his team plays. On top of that, he has indestructible mental strength and he is a genuine competitor.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/apr/22/paul-scholes-tributes-600-games-manchester-united
Thierry Henry, World Cup winning France forward

Way

“He is one of the top three to five players to have ever played in the Premier League - his passing, movement and technique set examples to everyone, not just younger players.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8922460.stm
Alan Hansen, 2010

“England have lost their best player.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/paul-scholes-i-know-there-isnt-much-time-left-so-i-have-to-enjoy-it-799562.html
George Best, speaking about Scholes' decision to retire from international football

“What a player Paul is. Everything about him is just perfect.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://cantheyscore.com/2011/05/31/paul-scholes-50-quotes-that-define-a-legend/
Pat Crerand

Perfection

“No celebrity bullshit, no self promotion - an amazingly gifted player who remained an unaffected human being.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/may/18/manchesterunited.championsleague1
Roy Keane, former Manchester United captain

Self-confidence

“Rickey had all the money and all the players and never let the two get together.”

Branch Rickey (1881–1965) American baseball player and coach

Ralph Kiner, speaking on April 15, 2004, Jackie Robinson Day, in the FSNY broadcast booth; as quoted in "Dog Gone? No Way; Russo Listens to Heart, Stays with FAN" by Bob Raissman, in New York Daily News (April 18, 2004), p. 85

Money

“Even though Del Piero may be well into his 30s now, he remains one of the great players.”

Alessandro Del Piero (1974) Italian former professional footballer

Mark Hughes, FindArticles http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_20020616/ai_n12844117

“Del Piero is the best player in the history of Italian football. He is a person for who I do not only have a lot of respect, but a lot of affection as well.”

Alessandro Del Piero (1974) Italian former professional footballer

Raúl González Blanco, Goal.com http://www.goal.com/en/news/10/italian-football/2014/12/16/7126242/del-piero-the-best-italian-player-ever-says-raul.html

History, Football, Personality

“He is a world-class player who needs no introductions.”

Alessandro Del Piero (1974) Italian former professional footballer

Carlo Ancelotti, Repubblica.it http://www.repubblica.it/online/campionato/delpiero/delpiero/delpiero.html

World

“Fabio Cannavaro was the best player of this World Cup.”

Fabio Cannavaro (1973) Italian footballer

Diego Maradona, speaking of Germany 2006 http://www.i-sportsbook.com/soccer/index.html

World

“What a player. What a man. What an absolute diamond of a footballer. The critics, the haters, they cannot touch Frank Lampard now. Not after last night. Not after that penalty. He won, they lost. He stood tall, they skulked in the background.”

Frank Lampard (1978) English association football player

Martin Samuel, writing in The Times on May 1, 2008. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/european_football/article3851215.ece

Penalty, Football, Night

“Dennis is the best player I have ever played with as a partner. It is a dream for a striker to have him in the team with you.”

Dennis Bergkamp (1969) Dutch footballer

Thierry Henry http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/5202166.stm About

Dreams