Sporting culture is needed where marks are given to students for sports in schools, jobs are assured for sportsperson, and sponsors are willing to support them through rough times.

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.

For me, tennis is a sport. It’s not a job, it’s a sport.

You need to know how to enjoy the victories. In the end, this is a great sport, and it’s to be enjoyed.

Baseball is a sport where even the smallest gesture can have a profound impact

I love teaching the younger skaters.

Baseball is a sport that demands respect for tradition and an openness to innovation

The more cricket you play in your head, the less you perform on the field. So let cricket, the sport, be on the field.

Baseball is a sport that celebrates individual excellence within a team framework

You have to be mentally strong to succeed in cricket, especially at the international level.

Cricket is a sport that teaches you a lot about life, including teamwork, discipline, and perseverance.

It’s because you alienate half the room talking about sports. Half the crowd will be against you no matter what you say.

To run alone is not sport. To run with others is sport.

What motivates me year in, year out, is the love for the sport and the legacy I want to leave for the present and next generation.

I don’t have regrets. In any sport, the feeling of regret is a sign of indiscipline.

I’m not a perfectionist, but I like to feel that things are done well

I’m sure that I’m a winner person. I’m sure that I win more than lose.

If I can have the chance to be the best ever, then that would be perfect.

My free-kick secret? I just look at the net and say take the kick, Cristiano.

I have my flaws too, but I am a professional who doesn’t like to miss or lose.

I’ve always dreamed to win the Champions League with Real Madrid and we are only one step away to win it

I never promise anything. I don’t promise anything to my mum. I don’t promise anything to the supporters.

I’m ready to lose my life if that’s what Portugal needs to win. I’ll play vs USA even if I play with one leg.

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

Don Alfredo leaves us, but his memory will last forever in our hearts. Legends never die. Thanks for everything Maestro.

Without football, my life is worth nothing.

I do not exchange my shirt with ASSASSINS

I know who likes football likes me

I’m always trying to be the best, on and off the pitch, is also very important. I’ve always taken things very seriously, since I was very young, and that’s reflected in my career. Always being nominated, winning trophies for the club or individual awards, that’s the culmination of many years of dedication, hard work and professionalism and that makes me very happy.

I feel I have grown up. I am a man. It’s important in my football too. When everything is good, I don’t think you grow up fantastically, I think maybe you need a few problems to grow up. It is good if people in England have started to admire me. I think I have changed a little since the World Cup. I am stronger with my mentality and with my game as well.

It is a poor sport that is not worth a candle.

I am in the fighting game, I don’t care about anything else. I don’t watch the news, I don’t care about politics, I don’t care about other sports. I don’t care about anything I don’t need to care about. This is my sport, it is my life. I study it, I think about it, all the time. Nothing else matters.

Pain is part of the sport.

I always think street but train sport.

I don’t watch the news, I don’t care about politics, I don’t care about other sports.

People do what they think works for them, but the sport is about instinct, movement, balance, power… it’s too animalistic to get rigid about your training.

Ask José Mourinho, he wouldn’t know a thing about me, my sport – he knows football, and to get to high levels you have to be insane, nothing else means anything.

Golf isn’t a sport, it’s a game. I’m not saying it’s not a difficult game, with lots of mental stuff. But it’s not a sport like mine. Where is the combat, the intensity of what we do?

Sport has a wonderful way of bringing together people and nations.

Surfing big waves is not an extreme sport to me. I fall off, tumble down, and come up. My heart’s racing because I’m thinking I almost drowned, and I thank God I can breathe again, but I always think, ‘What am I hitting?’ Water.

My motto is, you have to get in a sport a day.

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

I don’t want to be remembered for my tennis accomplishments. That’s no contribution to society. [Tennis] was purely selfish; that was for me

There is a syndrome in sports called ‘paralysis by analysis.’

Swimming is not a sport. Swimming is a way to keep from drowning. That’s just common sense!