World Cup Quotes

I think the World Cup is going to be bigger than what a lot of people are anticipating. At this stage in my career, when there is an opportunity, albeit a small one, of being on the team, what a great way to possibly end my career. ~ Al Leiter

If a FIFA World Cup tournament had been held every year between 1982 and 1986, France would have won two or three. ~ Michel Patini

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. ~ Cristiano Ronaldo

Here at Carolina, our World Cup opponents marked their calendars. Obviously the other nations wanted to win every game, but a big upset over the U.S. was something we knew other teams would cherish. ~ Lorrie Fair

Sourav's calm and assured presence sets him apart. His captaincy is of a high order but he bats sensibly and reads situations well. I hope Sourav too becomes a World Cup wining captain. ~ Lata Mangeshkar

The Indian team does not need any best wishes - they are going to win anyway. I have been close to Sourav Ganguly, and I hope he does well in the World Cup. ~ Amitabh Bachchan

Brazil goes into every World Cup expecting to win - so when it is in Brazil it is expected even more. You can't understand what the World Cup means to our country. ~ Ronaldinho

The World Cup needs a brilliant Brazilian team. ~ Alan Hansen

I've never met anybody who says they don't like the World Cup. If you're a soccer fan or not, everybody loves watching it, and I think it could be the same for other sports. ~ Landon Donovan

I remember watching the Three Tenors at the World Cup in 1990, and it was amazing. They made opera accessible to the man in the street. ~ Anton Du Beke

You have to show up in the World Cup, and in the World Cup anything can happen. ~ Lionel Messi

[On England's elimination from the 2002 World Cup after losing 2-1 to Brazil] Never was Steven Gerrard more noticeably missed, for his ability to pass, rather than kick the ball over 40 yards and for his steely mentality. Not for the first time, Eriksson's substitutions were baffling. The situation cried for Joe Cole, the one England player with a trick to beat a man, but it was the convalescent Kieron Dyer who was sent on, in place of Sinclair. Owen, never fully fit, was withdrawn after 80 minutes, at which stage Eriksson sent on Darius Vassell and Teddy Sheringham in a move which smacked of desperation, rather than tactical nous. From Sven-Goran Eriksson: The Final Reckoning ~ Joe Lovejoy

I personally think that we can win the World Cup. We are improving with every game. With such a young average age in the squad we can only carry on improving. ~ Ruud Van Nistelrooy

It's got to be harder in real life to win a World Cup. But depending on if you play World Class level on FIFA, it's going to be difficult to win in the video game, too. ~ Landon Donovan

Qualifying for the second stage would be a successful World Cup for us. I think we can do it. ~ Robbie Keane

I'm half-Italian and my name is Portuguese. Michael Young is half-Mexican. There are players from the United States that have heritage elsewhere and it's a great thing to have a world cup to celebrate the whole world. It shows the world that baseball is important and how great the game is. ~ Mark Teixeira

If I'd still been in one piece from the World Cup and gone through my career, what type of player would I have been? No doubt about it, if I hadn't had as many injuries I would have been the all-time leading scorer for England. ~ Michael Owen

I have reasons to believe that I could win the World Cup, but I take it one race at a time. ~ Marcel Hirscher

Four goals in (16) minutes. Literally I don't even know how that happens especially in a World Cup final. ~ Abby Wambach

YOU KNOW AS A PLAYER THAT YOU WON'T HAVE MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO PLAY IN WORLD CUPS - SO YOU HAVE TO TAKE THEM WHEN YOU CAN. ~ Lionel Messi

Argentina is my country, my family, my way of expressing myself. I would trade all of my records for the World Cup trophy. ~ Lionel Messi

The World Cup is a very complicated tournament - six games, seven if you make it to the final - and maybe if you lose one game you're out, even if you're the best. ~ Pele

As the 2018 World Cup Championship in Russia draws to a close, President Trump scores a hat-trick of diplomatic faux pas - first at the NATO summit, then on a UK visit, and finally with a spectacular own goal in Helsinki, thereby handing Vladimir Putin a golden propaganda trophy. For as long as this moron continues to queer the pitch by refusing to be a team player, America's Achilles' heel will go from bad to worse. It's high time somebody on his own side tackled him in his tracks. ~ Alex Morritt

If a team lives up to its role as favorite, it will have earned the World Cup. By the way, Adidas grew by about 30 percent in Brazil even without sponsoring the national team. ~ Herbert Hainer

When I get on the World Cup tour, I'm kind of disconnected from the world. I just kind of get wrapped up in my world and wrapped up in trying to ski fast every day, and I forget about everything else. ~ Lindsey Vonn

I'm aware that the World Cup is probably the greatest spectacle in the world of sport, and that's despite the referees that have been found to have fixed games specifically. ~ David Stern

They knew who I was in Australia in 2006, but not to a great extent. Now, with the momentum of a second World Cup, it has gone crazy. ~ Timothy F. Cahill

The adidas +Challenge is a really cool opportunity for kids here in Los Angeles and across the country to get excited for the FIFA World Cup this summer. As a big fan of soccer, Im looking forward to seeing the 32 youth teams compete for the title of Team USA and represent our country at the global finals in Berlin. ~ Luke Wilson

I think South Africa has shown it can host such a big event as the World Cup, so why not hold the Olympics at some point in Africa? Maybe not just in one country but in a host of countries. ~ Jochen Zeitz

The only subject fewer authentic Americans cared about than the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo was World Cup Soccer. America is an epic global battle with ruthless savages who seek our destruction, and liberals are feeling sorry for the terrorists. ~ Ann Coulter

Every team going to Brazil 2014 will be there to win, and it's going to be a fiercely contested World Cup. ~ Neymar

The crowd is wonderful. There is always a superb atmosphere in the finish area. It's good for the World Cup. I missed it a lot when I had to rest and it's so nice to be back here. ~ Hermann Maier

Nightmare completed, another humiliating defeat. 10 goals in 2 game.
It will take time to come out from such humiliating defeat for Brazilian fans. But I think when you like something, when you fall to someone, when you are in love, you like them whatever happens, even they give tears to you time to time because you liked it from your heart. ~ Nutan Bajracharya

No matter how old you are now. You are never too young or too old for success or going after what you want. Here's a short list of people who accomplished great things at different ages
1) Helen Keller, at the age of 19 months, became deaf and blind. But that didn't stop her. She was the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.
2) Mozart was already competent on keyboard and violin; he composed from the age of 5.
3) Shirley Temple was 6 when she became a movie star on "Bright Eyes."
4) Anne Frank was 12 when she wrote the diary of Anne Frank.
5) Magnus Carlsen became a chess Grandmaster at the age of 13.
6) Nadia Comăneci was a gymnast from Romania that scored seven perfect 10.0 and won three gold medals at the Olympics at age 14.
7) Tenzin Gyatso was formally recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama in November 1950, at the age of 15.
8) Pele, a soccer superstar, was 17 years old when he won the world cup in 1958 with Brazil.
9) Elvis was a superstar by age 19.
10) John Lennon was 20 years and Paul Mcartney was 18 when the Beatles had their first concert in 1961.
11) Jesse Owens was 22 when he won 4 gold medals in Berlin 1936.
12) Beethoven was a piano virtuoso by age 23
13) Issac Newton wrote Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica at age 24
14) Roger Bannister was 25 when he broke the 4 minute mile record
15) Albert Einstein was 26 when he wrote the theory of relativity
16) ~ Pablo

If you spend 10,000 hours on the bunny slope, you're never going to win the World Cup. You've got to challenge yourself, ski the double blacks, go out when it's blowin' and snowin' as well as when it's sunny and smooth. ~ Bob Lefsetz

When we play at the World Cup, any African will back any African team. Because we want to hear the different approach to African football. We want to hear that Africans can do well, and Africans do well. ~ Yaya Toure

Nobody likes being criticised, particularly by players who will be in Disneyland this summer on their holidays rather than the World Cup in Japan ~ Phil Thompson

You always know when one of the first ["Harry Potter" movies] are on TV, because you'll get a text message from one of your friends saying, "How high was your voice?" It's like watching a home movie, in some sense. But you just remember because the audience sees the scenes as they're written, but we remember shooting [the scenes] and all the stories that came around it. Like the Quidditch World Cup in ["Harry Potter and the] Goblet of Fire," it's like the Glastonbury Festival at Leavesden [Studios]. ~ James Phelps

A French player, Sylvain Marconnet, broke his tibia skiing in 2007 and missed his home World Cup. For me the risk of breaking something versus the reward was never worth it. ~ Mike Tindall

Looking back now at my first World Cup experience, I didn't know what was going on. I was a newbie and I had no idea what to expect. ~ Cobi Jones

They always lose when it matters (getting it wrong about England in the rugby world cup final 2003). ~ Bernard Laporte

We're going to do it. We're going to get to the World Cup. ~ Wayne Rooney

Victoria Beckham looks like she has a dump once every four years. That's probably how David knows that there's a World Cup coming up. ~ Frankie Boyle

I always assumed that everyone knew no country would ever be awarded a World Cup without pricey gifts exchanging hands under the tables. ~ Rabih Alameddine

I want to go to the World Cup. I want to go to the Masters. I want to go ... anywhere. ~ Michael Phelps

I was an ambassador for Betway during the Rugby World Cup and at the moment I'm working as an ambassador for Artemis Investment Management. I also organised the first Rugby Aid in 2015. We had celebrities playing rugby against former England team players and raised a ton of money for Rugby For Heroes [a charity for former servicemen and women]. Only one celeb got crunched quite badly - Jaime Laing from Made in Chelsea ended up with cracked ribs. ~ Mike Tindall

My father and I rarely saw eye to eye when I was growing up. We saw the world differently. It was only when we were both adults that we were able to share spectacles. However, football, and particularly the World Cup, was when we, enemy combatants, could traverse trenches and be together. ~ Rabih Alameddine

In '82 Brazil showed that you can't win the World Cup without a solid defense. ~ Alan Hansen

A chance, as a coach, to take a team to the World Cup finals is probably as high up the tree as it gets, certainly with one-day cricket. ~ Andy Pick

I feel that World Cup cricket should be played like football in which all the 160 countries take part. If only a handful of countries are going to keep on playing in the World Cup without making the game popular, I will be a sad man. ~ Kapil Dev

The 33 or 34-year-olds will be 36 or 37 by the time the next World Cup comes around, if they're not careful. ~ Kevin Keegan

If you can beat New Zealand, then you're probably going to win the World Cup. ~ Brian O'Driscoll

The World Cup only comes around once every four years and is the absolute pinnacle of our sport. It is something we dream about as players. It is a reason why many of us started playing this game. I know myself, my teammates will be focused on what's ahead and what's at stake. ~ Jozy Altidore

Nobody criticised me when we qualified for the World Cup when I decided that the best shape for us going forward was three men at the back and stretching the pitch width-wise, which gives you options. ~ Glenn Hoddle

And then '74 as I mentioned and then the 1990 world cup was our team was the team of the reunification you know, so we were the team for both sides of Germany so now, you know throughout the last 16 years, we've melted together. And now comes the next milestone. ~ Jurgen Klinsmann

An Olympic gold medal is something that almost seems like a fantasy. Yes, of course I want it, since I was a little kid, before I even knew what the World Cup tour was. ~ Hannah Kearney

The more expensive and/or exclusive a sport, the whiter it tends to be: the fact almost has the force of a law. That is the main reason why the Rugby World Cup, the Pacific islands excepted, was so desperately white, the Springboks included. ~ Martin Jacques

The boy can do anything, but to be the star of the World Cup you have got to get to the final and win it! ~ Alan Hansen

I remember Simon O'Donnell being struck with cancer during Australia's 1987 World Cup campaign. I know very well what it is like to have a teammate who has been struck with a potentially fatal disease. He fought through: managed to get himself back to 100% fitness and back to playing again. ~ Tom Moody

For the record, the vuvuzela is not my enemy - and I even have, for reasons of self-defence installed a mini-vuvu with surprisingly powerful performance levels around my neck - though I miss hearing the crescendo of noise from the crowd that should accompany a promising attack on goal or a goal itself. Instead, of course, there is the monotone drone - a constant that belies the ebbs and flows of a game. ~ Richard Calland

The problem with me is I always think I should've done better. I felt that after the World Cup final and through my whole career. ~ Jonny Wilkinson

[Wayne Rooney ] best tournament was the 2004 European Championships, when he played alongside me and made such a big impact, but it hasn't happened for him at the World Cup for one reason or another. ~ Michael Owen

There's nothing quite like a World Cup. ~ Michael Owen

It's the only sport that's played in every country in the world. It's played and watched all over the world, it's the most popular sport in probably 90% of the countries, and then with the World Cup, you have the most viewed tournament of any sport in the world. ~ Claudio Reyna

I've seen elbows that broke eye sockets. I've seen a German goalkeeper just level a French guy. His teammates thought he was dead lying on the ground. This was in 1982 at my first World Cup. But a bite is outside any kind of contact collision: dirty foul play. A bite is a bite. ~ George Vecsey

At the World Cup, there is a constant risk that you might find a bag or some object that has been left behind, and no one is quite sure what it is. To bring in a full bomb-disposal team for each item can be very time-consuming. The PackBot can go over rough terrain, climb stairs, pick things up, and also be operated from a safe distance. ~ Colin Angle

Rob Green needed to get the long barrier out, didn't he? ~ James Anderson

You can go to the end of time, the last World Cup in the history of mankind, and the All-Blacks will be favourites for it. ~ Phil Kearns

The World Cup was a huge frustration because I had prepared really hard for it. But in the World Cup there is no formula, no recipe for success. ~ Kaka

Leading my country out at the World Cup was something I'll never forget. ~ Mark Viduka

People always say it's a shame someone as talented as Ryan Giggs or George Best before him never played in a World Cup or European Championship and I don't want my name to be added to that list. ~ Barry Ferguson

Once the World Cup preparations begin there will hardly be an opportunity to do so, since we'll have to put all our energy into the team. We coaches have a list of priorities and dealing with the media isn't in the top five. ~ Jurgen Klinsmann

I played against the Brazilians in '82, who were definitely the best team never to have won the World Cup. ~ Alan Hansen

One of the things I enjoy most during the World Cup is watching a team improve, mature, and gel during the course of the tournament. ~ Rabih Alameddine

The Olympics are every four years and I think every athlete who competes in the Olympics wants the gold medal, and I think that's what the World Cup is for a rugby player - it's the gold medal. ~ George Gregan

Congratulations to the Italian people for winning the World Cup ... They won after France's best player got ejected for head butting. That's the closest anyone in a French uniform has come to combat in 60 years ~ Jay Leno

Before dying, my last wish will be to see MS Dhoni's World Cup
Winning Six. ~ Sunil Gavaskar

They (the FAI) have asked, very humbly, can't we be team No 33 at the World Cup? They have asked for that ... really! ~ Sepp Blatter

Some people will tell you that Toronto, in the summer, is the nothing more than a cesspool of pollution, garbage, and the smells of a hundred ethnicities competing for top spot in a race won historically by curry, garlic, and the occasional cauldron of boiled cabbage. Take a walk down College Street West, Gerrard Street East, or the Danforth, and you'll see; then, they add - these people, complaining - that the stench is so pervasive, so incorrigible, nor merely for lack of wind, but for the ninety-nine percent humidity, which, after a rainstorm, adds an eradicable bottom-note of sweaty Birkenstocks and the organic tang of decaying plant life. This much is true; there is, however, more to the story. Take a walk down the same streets and you'll find racks of the most stunning saris - red with navy brocade, silver, canary, vermillion and chocolate; marts with lahsun and adrak, pyaz and pudina; windows of gelato, zeppole, tiramisu; dusty smoke shops with patio-bistros; you'll find dove-white statuary of Olympian goddesses, mobs in blue jerseys, primed for the World Cup - and more, still, the compulsory banter of couples who even after forty years can turn foul words into the bawdiest, more unforgettable laughter (and those are just the details). Beyond them is the container, the big canvas brushed with parks and valleys and the interminable shore; a backdrop of ferries and islands, gulls and clouds - sparkles of a million wave-tips as the sun decides which colours to leave on it ~ Cory Ingram

Brazil go into every World Cup expecting to win - so when it is in Brazil, it is expected even more. You can't understand what the World Cup means to our country. Not just the fans and players, but everybody in Brazil lets us know that they expect it. Our president, people in politics, all tell us to come back with the World Cup. ~ Ronaldinho

As a kid growing up in the back streets of Dublin I used to pretend I was playing in the World Cup with my mates out on the streets, and now I will be doing it for real. ~ Robbie Keane

Messi on the World Cup 2014? He showed why he is the best player in the world. It was a pleasure to see him play. ~ Alessandro Del Piero

I was a 21-year-old kid back then and I had my whole career in front of me. We were so close to reaching the World Cup and then we all woke up the next morning to realize our dreams had been dashed. ~ Russell Latapy

I realised that the political context had got worse since the 2010 World Cup. I tried to ignore it but I wanted, as a national coach - you may call this Utopia - to make Catalans and Basques feel good about supporting a Spanish side ... to unite even the most sectarian and nationalist. ~ Vicente Del Bosque

The whole kiss-and-tell thing is a negative approach that often happens in a World Cup. We will see negative stories about the players and it can affect their confidence and the overall performance of the national team on the pitch, let alone the bid to actually stage the competition. ~ Gary Lineker

Being an ex-England manager, one that failed to qualify for the World Cup, is like being a dead politician. ~ Graham Taylor

This will help us next year with the World Cup. I can imagine a lot of visitors from abroad will be here and asking what happened between 1933 and 1945. A lot of that will come up. I think this will make an important contribution to those discussions. ~ Otto Schily

As far as the World Cup is concerned, it is a process. We don't want to jump to the 50th floor straight away. We must start on the ground floor. ~ Sachin Tendulkar

Some have said it is the easiest group at the World Cup, but we realize it won't be like that. Germany are a tremendous side, but to be honest I don't know much about Cameroon and Saudi Arabia. ~ Robbie Keane

It is well documented that I am a lifelong football fan. My love of the British game started with the 1966 World Cup. ~ Alisher Usmanov

My goals are for the U.S. team to get to the second round of the World Cup and to win a championship here in the U.S. with my club team the Columbus Crew. ~ Brian McBride

I watched my first penalty shoot-out during the World Cup 2014 (Brazil vs. Chile): men cried, I cried, Neymar cried. I was done for. I loved it. ~ Jessica Pan

Everyone knows that England are a far better team than their World Cup performance suggests. It's vital that we play with confidence and take the strength and competition of the engage Super League in to the Four Nations. ~ Paul Sculthorpe

The shot of Kapil Dev kissing the World Cup and hordes of Indian fans all over at Lord's is etched in my memory. Every Indian is proud of that victory, and every Indian player who has played the World Cup after that '83 win wants to bring the Cup home. ~ Suresh Raina

Winning the World Cup was the worst thing that ever happened to the England team. ~ Clive Woodward

I prefer that Argentina wins the World Cup. Messi deserves it for all he has done in football. He's my friend, I wish him the best ~ Neymar

You've got to believe you're going to win, and I believe we'll win the World Cup until the final whistle blows and we're knocked out. ~ Peter Shilton

What do you mean? Why do you think you like them? That's all you and I did together when you were little. Don't you remember? I. Don't. Remember. I remember, It's a sink-or-swim world, Noah. I remember, Act tough and you are tough. I remember every heart-stomping look of disappointment, of embarrassment, of bewilderment from him. I remember: If your twin sister wasn't my spitting image I'd swear you came about from parthenogenesis. I remember the 49ers, the Miami Heat, the Giants, the World Cup. I do not remember Animal Planet. ~ Jandy Nelson

Neither Romelu nor myself were happy with the game he had and his reaction. He has apologised and for me that is the end of the story. I don't look back
I look at the future. That is what interests me. Romelu trained well yesterday and looked happy. Every player wants to show himself in a World Cup but it is not going to change your life. ~ Marc Wilmots

If England had Fergie, Wenger or Mourinho in charge, they would win the World Cup. ~ Andy Gray