Zitat des Tages über Fußballer / Footballer:
There would be no debate about who was the best footballer the world had ever seen - me or Pele. Everyone would say me.
A Kerry footballer with an inferiority complex is one who thinks he's just as good as everybody else.
Nobody expects a footballer to have any kind of an IQ, which is a bit of an unfair stereotype.
I was with my mum in the shops, a ladies boutique or something, and I was asked what I wanted to be when I grow up. I think you're supposed to say an ambulance man or a footballer or a soldier or something like that, and I told all my mother's friends that I wanted to be Minister for Health. She was mortified, needless to say.
I've got no interest in football. My brother's a footballer, too, and I was dragged to the freezing pitch every week as a child. I don't see much glamour in it.
Beckham is unusual. He was desperate to be a footballer. His mind was made up when he was nine or ten. Many kids think that it's beyond them. But you can't succeed without practising at any sport.
Hendrix was the first person I had come across who seemed completely free, and when you're nine or 10, your life is entirely dominated by adults. So he represented this thing that I wanted to be. Hendrix was the first person who made me think it might be good to be a singer and a guitarist - before that I wanted to be a footballer.
We had to be down early to get the best stuff for the pros we looked after and then get the rags that we were left ourselves for training. It seems very old school but it grounded me as a person and made me appreciate everything as a footballer, because all we got was a pair of boots.
I am a lucky man because when I was young, I wanted to be a footballer. Suddenly, around 30 years old, I thought, 'I want to try to be a manager because it's different.'
For every footballer, to finish in the top ten of the Ballon d'Or is a dream.
When I was a child, it was my dream to be a professional footballer. When I was 14 I visited Milan's San Siro stadium and remember thinking how unbelievable it was. From then onwards I vowed that one day I would be playing there - and I am very proud that I achieved this and also for everything else I have managed to achieve in football.
The lifestyle I lead as a footballer means I am always in the spotlight.
Even as a footballer, I was always being creative.
I've been booed in Holland and in Uruguay - as a professional footballer, you need to have thick skin and just get used to it.
I am going to continue and bring this club forward. I am Paul Gascoigne the footballer.
I got injured when I was a kid, and it prevented me from becoming a footballer.
As a footballer, you always want to test yourself against the best.
There is pressure every day as a footballer.
As a kid, you obviously dream of being a professional footballer. I would watch players like Ronaldo of Brazil and pretend to be him in the playground. But I don't think about trying to become one of the best in the world or anything like that. I just play football.
Now Jack Charlton wasn't wrong, I was a bad footballer.
I'm a footballer, that's my job and that's all I want to be known for.
When I retired in 2006, I stayed for a further two years in England. I stayed because I wanted to be in England without being a footballer, without the rhythm. I wanted to enjoy the city.
A footballer's career is very short, and I want to finish it in a strong and spectacular way.
My father pushed me to be a footballer. At every opportunity, he took me with him to play football. He came with me to matches.
I've always wanted to be a footballer, and I've always believed that's the path I was going to go down.
There is no rule that says a footballer needs to be 'this high' and 'this wide.'
I'm actually about as famous as a fourth division footballer from the 70s.
Celebrity culture, it's everywhere, isn't it? It's reality TV, Big Brother. I didn't become a footballer to be famous, I became a footballer to be successful. I didn't want to be famous. Now people want to be famous. Why? Why would you want people following you about all day?
Ryan Giggs will go down as the most successful British footballer of all time and I cannot see anyone ever overtaking him. He's on the brink of his 13th league title, after all.
Pulling on your country's shirt is the greatest honour a footballer can have. It's what I always dreamed of as a kid and I get a buzz every time.
As a footballer I can't imagine life without the use of one of my legs... Sadly this is exactly what happens to thousands of children every year when they accidentally step on a landmine.
Maybe I'm the only footballer who isn't interested in cars. My Lancia Y gets me around.
I had an early taste of fame. I was 20, going out with TV presenter Dani Behr and we'd have paparazzi chasing us. I'm not comfortable being photographed, though I accept it is part of the job. I had to ask myself, 'What comes first, being a celebrity or footballer?'
Of course I would have liked to have played at the World Cup, but I achieved so much in my career as a footballer that I can't have any complaints.
To the fans, it does not matter a damn how you are. You are seen as the footballer, the idol, so no one thinks to stop and ask you, 'Hey, how are you?'
As a footballer, you just have to try to learn what you've done bad and what I could do good.