Athlete Quotes

Regaining the Champions Cup is not going to be easy.

In football, day in day out, you always have to show your worth.

I have a fantastic wife, and not only in terms of external beauty. Her priority and mine is our children. That is our choice.

As a professional football player, I have known perfectly well from the day I started playing that every day I have to fight for my place.

I'd say I'm quite powerful so I'm not afraid of jumps or acrobatic elements. The hardest part is... get on the beam and stay there on top of it!

The career isn't guaranteed for as long as you might want to play.

It's always great when a defense is able to create turnovers and score. That's something we missed last year. We'd get some turnovers, but we never scored points.

I expected to get drafted. I knew that I wouldn't get drafted on that first day due to the fact that not a lot of people had the opportunity to see me play much.

As a kid, there are some things you looked forward to. You looked forward to Charlie Brown during Halloween and you looked forward to Monday Night Football.

You want to come home from a tournament with a winner's medal. That's not the fans or the media putting us under pressure, that's the pressure we put ourselves under.

You are always flattered when big clubs are interested in you.

There is a huge responsibility on all of us to get England through. It would be one of the biggest disasters in sports history if we blew it and we must make sure it does not happen.

There is a hangover from a defeat like Denmark - ask any player about when they've had a bad game, it's still in there somewhere in the back of your mind.

People think we don't give a toss about the game, but when I walked out of Windsor Park that night I felt lower than a snake's belly. The reality is still there.

No matter how much money you have or what kind of cocoon you live in, the reality is that you have lost a game of football and let England's fans down. We are bothered.

Most professional players are their own biggest critics. Some of the things you read in the papers that strike you as bang out of order will already have been thought by the players themselves.

If we had a starting XI that no one could argue about it wouldn't say a lot for English football. We'd probably be on a downward spiral. It's good that people have different ideas about who should play.

I've heard people say it looks as if I don't care and I've certainly read that, but the way I play is natural. I don't think I can change it. I know I'm working as hard as the next man, even if it doesn't always look that way.

I want a new contract. I'm happy at United and I see my future here.

I set myself high standards on the pitch and I know I have not always lived up to them this season.

I didn't expect to be dropped by England.

If any player has a bad game it's there in the back of your mind in the next game. There's always a hangover. It is like a wounded animal in a way, as you want to get out there as quick as possible and rectify it.

Four years ago maybe we thought we were inferior to Brazil, subconsciously we didn't see ourselves beating them. Now we believe in ourselves, we can be on the pitch with any team in the world and think we can win.

When I pick up the ball and it feels nice and light and small I know I'm going to have a good day. But if I picked it up and it's big and heavy, I know I'm liable to get into a little trouble.

There was great leadership in this country at the time of World War II. There was also unrelenting resolve at home, in America's factories and on the farms, in the cities and the country.

The difference between relief pitching when I did it today is simple, there is too much of it. It's one of those cases where more is not necessarily better.

Sympathy is something that shouldn't be bestowed upon the Yankees. Apparently it angers them.

Nowadays, they have more trouble packing hair dryers than baseball equipment.

My father loved baseball and he cultivated my talent. I don't think he ever had any doubt in his mind that I would play professional baseball someday.

If you believe your catcher is intelligent and you know that he has considerable experience, it is a good thing to leave the game almost entirely in his hands.