Football is a game of details, and every detail can make a difference.

Affirmative action is a little like the professional football draft. The NFL awards its No. 1 draft choices to the lowest-ranked team in the league. It doesn’t do this out of compassion or guilt. It’s done for mutual survival. They understand that a league can only be as strong as its weakest team.

Nearly everything possible has been done to spoil this game: the heavy financial interests;… the absurd publicity given to every feature of it by the Press; … but the fact remains that it is not yet spoilt, and it has gone out and conquered the world.

Football is not just a game; it’s a way of life, a commitment to excellence

In football and in life, you have to give it your all, every single play

Whether we’re stuffing our faces with Kogi tacos or playing a pickup game of football outside the stages, there’s never a shortage of fun behind the scenes on ‘Murder In The First.’

I only deal in what is real. To be honest, I’ve never thought about what I could get out of football or where it would take me. I just wanted to play. I’m the same now

Sometimes in football you have to score goals

There’s nothing I’m scared of in football

A lot of different races and nationalities play football, so it is a good way to try and stop racism

In football you always get judged on your last game. Whoever you are, or how amazing you are, it’s the last game that everyone has seen.

I eat football, I sleep football. I am not mad I am just passionate

You see it everywhere in football: when results are not there, then the first guy who has to go is the manager. It’s not always the managers; sometimes it’s also the players who we have to blame.

Some players are more concentrated on what they will do after their football career and want to make sure their lives are financially settled. I prefer to play in big teams earn a little less money and win trophies

Brazil versus Argentina is always a great game, with great football and scoring chances.

I always ran very fast and jumped very high but when I was about thirteen it was more of a choice between football and tennis, and I went for tennis.

If you are captain of a great team like Paris St-Germain there are lots of players like Zlatan, players who are known by everybody. So to be captain of that team gives you respect and, in football, respect is very important.

I must continue to work hard to help my teammates. Competition always exists in football.

Italian football remains a very successful product, which has inspired people all over the world.

It depends on how my football career goes, but when I am finished, I would love to go the NFL and be a kicker. Even if I got to play just one game, it is something I would like to do.

I play my best football when I’m calm mentally.

Now we’ve got a little daughter; me and the missus won’t talk about football as much.

It has been tough when I have been with the national team and we have gone to play in some of the poorer areas in Brazil. You see people come and watch us train or play a match, and then you know some of them are going home with no food on the plate.

In football, there are good and bad times, but if you are a great side, you can be confident of winning trophies again.

When things go well, everyone talks well of you and vice versa. Unfortunately, football is like that.

I have my life. I have my values. And compared with much of society, especially football, that is radical.

When kids are 15 or 16, they should be playing more sports. I played football, basketball, cricket… Name any sport, and I played it.

I am a sporty person who loves to go to the gym, train, play football.

I actually had a nickname as a player myself. When I played high school football in Texas, strong safety, they called me Choo Choo because they said I hit like a train.

While American football is very structured and linear and static, where everyone lines up and there’s a burst and it happens, soccer is like the cosmos. It’s like constellations. It’s bodies moving in space. It’s a very spherical game. You can move in any direction, at any time.

My mother gave me a ball, and from then on, there was only football in my life.

In America, if you don’t like the rules, you protest. And the worst thing they can do is make sure you never play professional football again.

I write what I like to write. Those who like to listen to it, listen to it. And the ones who don’t, watch football and drink beer, jog, go to discos and so forth. I never claimed to be a man for all season

When I was playing football I never enjoyed it that much, I was never happy. If I scored two goals, I wanted a third, I always wanted more. Now it’s all over I can look back with satisfaction, but I never felt that way when I was playing.

Something I like to do a lot is just sit by water when there’s a current and just stare into the water. I don’t fish, I don’t hunt, I don’t scuba, I don’t spear, don’t boat, don’t play basketball or football – I excel at staring into space. I’m really good at that.

Success is goals, everything else is commentary.

I will never reject an autograph, hug or photo. I was also a fan of football.

I still remember when my teacher told me that football wouldn’t give me anything to eat

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

I want to be one of the best players around in two or three years time, to be a decisive footballer.

When my family isn’t alright, I get restless. It just doesn’t seem right to me.

Without football, my life is worth nothing.

I know who likes football likes me

I’m in love with football, but I just needed to recapture that strength to train and play. So many people helped me along the way that I’m afraid to leave anyone out. Above all, though, I want to mention the help of my medical team that has been working alongside me for the past two years.

He is as tough as anything. You can crack him once, but he won’t let it bother him. He’s back on his feet in no time and getting on with it. He is a strong character and a great sight when he’s heading for goal.

Lots of young players have triumphed at United, so why can’t it happen to me? I’m not worried I’m young – it’s an incentive to do the best I can.

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.

When you’ve got a player who does what he does at that pace this late in the game than you know you’ve got an invaluable talent.

I like college football a lot, because it’s the dream that you’re chasing. The dream of one day possibly making it, with the harsh reality that only one percent make it.

I don’t train for football; I train more for a lifestyle.

You can talk about what you see from the outside; it’s hard to tell me who I am when you’re just looking at me with a football uniform on. That’s a totally different person. That’s my job, that’s it.

Don’t walk through life just playing football. Don’t walk through life just being an athlete. Athletics will fade. Character and integrity and really making an impact on someone’s life, that’s the ultimate vision, that’s the ultimate goal – bottom line.

So like any football or basketball coach, you always always believe you’re going to win.

When I watch Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund side, I see a manager who is determined to play in his opponent’s half, who is committed to attacking football, and, from the way he conducts himself on the touchline, is clearly an interesting, charismatic personality.

Playing against Messi, as I’ve said before, is as tough a test of your concentration as any in football. At any moment, he can take the mickey out of you. Physically, it is demanding, but mentally even more so. You cannot switch off.

United are about attacking football, and everything else has to takes its place behind that.

Things change, although I believe that certain principles – of attacking, entertaining football – should always be protected.

I am not a man of many words, but I can honestly say that playing football is all I have ever wanted to do and to have had such a long and successful career at Manchester United has been a real honour. This was not a decision that I have taken lightly but I feel now is the right time for me to stop playing. To have been part of the team that helped the Club reach that 19th title is a great privilege.

I was a good football player, and I had a chance to play with some great players.

Football was my sport. I was fast. I was a free safety.

I respect his decisions, but football without Messi is not football. It is very hard to imagine football without him.

Football, particularly Brazilian football, is about being happy, and that’s what tricks do. It’s part of our culture, at the end of the day, though, it’s all about winning.

Football without Messi and Messi without football are not things that go together.

I do not play football to win the Ballon d’Or. I play football to be happy, because I love it and want to play football.

I like to watch good football so I like to watch good players.

I’m Messi Football Club.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to completely walk away from football.

Football is big business – you can’t get away from it. But you have to separate that side from the playing.

He cannot kick with his left foot, he cannot head a ball, he cannot tackle and he doesn’t score many goals. Apart from that, he’s all right.

If I’d been born ugly, you’d never have heard of Pelé.

I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.

I love football and it’s the sport I would really like to play. I’ve said on national television here that I would really love to play for one of our football clubs when I finished my tennis career

Sometimes I watch a football match, and I think I know better, but at the end of the day, we don’t. So I think people need to appreciate more what we are trying to achieve in the car.

I think foosball is a combination of soccer and shishkabobs.