When I was a teenager, my idol was the Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff. He's the only person I've ever asked for an autograph.

- Ferran Adria

A Kerry footballer with an inferiority complex is one who thinks he's just as good as everybody else.

- John B. Keane

There is pressure every day as a footballer.

- Jamie Redknapp

I'm a footballer, that's my job and that's all I want to be known for.

- Jamie Redknapp

The myth about me as a footballer has grown: I am now the lost Maradona of Norway.

- Jo Nesbo

I look at Messi, and he makes me laugh. A beautiful footballer who is still like a kid. A world superstar, but still a kid. Innocent, you know. He just plays.

- Johan Cruyff

If I'd had the choice when I was 14, and someone had said to me, 'You can either be a footballer or an actor,' I'd have said: 'Well, can't I be a footballing actor?'

- Ian McShane

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.

- Gary Neville

I wouldn't want to go out six nights a week and watch somebody's reserves playing to check out a footballer to see if we're going to buy him.

- Gary Lineker

Would I swap what I have achieved as a cook if I could have been as successful as a footballer? Definitely.

- Gordon Ramsay

People don't understand that the feel of the surface is so important for a footballer. The ball travels on the surface; our feet move on the surface - all of that goes into how the game is actually played.

- Abby Wambach

Even as a footballer, I was always being creative.

- Eric Cantona

There would be no debate about who was the best footballer the world had ever seen - me or Pele. Everyone would say me.

- Diego Maradona

I'm actually about as famous as a fourth division footballer from the 70s.

- Dylan Moran

I just want people to see me as a hard-working footballer and someone who is passionate about the game.

- David Beckham

As a footballer, you always want to test yourself against the best.

- David Beckham

Now Jack Charlton wasn't wrong, I was a bad footballer.

- Craig Johnston

I want to be a footballer - and that means playing on a Saturday afternoon.

- Charlie Adam

I understand football. I have always been a good footballer, and that gets overlooked by most people.

- Alan Smith

There is no rule that says a footballer needs to be 'this high' and 'this wide.'

- Andres Iniesta