Lewis Grizzard
Author, Humorist
"If soccer was an American soft drink, it would be Diet Pepsi"
Soccer quotes
Soccer
1.3K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Pele
Professional Footballer
"Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do"
Pele
Professional Footballer
"Everything is practice."
Pele
Professional Footballer
"Enthusiasm is everything. It must be taut and vibrating like a guitar string."
Stan Smith
Tennis Player
"Experience tells you what to do; confidence allows you to do it."
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside soccer — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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Soccer quotes (page 1 of 66)
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"Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pele. I have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a soccer player, but how to be like a man."
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"If a man watches three football games in a row, he should be declared legally dead."
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"It was with a homosexual, I was barely 14 years old. But let's be fair, I wasn't the only one who did it. He was a man in Bauru that all our team visited."
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"Once you consent to some concession, you can never cancel it and put things back the way they are."
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"Soccer is popular because stupidity is popular."
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"Play for the name on the front of the shirt, and they will remember the name on the back"
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"Very few of us have any idea whatsoever of what life is like living in a goldfish bowl,except, of course, for those of us who are goldfish."
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"I am delighted to have you play football. I believe in rough, manly sports. But I do not believe in them if they degenerate into the sole end of any one's existence. I don't want you to sacrifice standing well in your studies to any over-athleticism; and I need not tell you that character counts for a great deal more than either intellect or body in winning success in life. Athletic proficiency is a mighty good servant, and like so many other good servants, a mighty bad master."
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"How could you have a soccer team if all were goalkeepers? How would it be an orchestra if all were French horns?"
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"I'm puttin' pressure on you kids like I'm a soccer mom."
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"In football everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team."
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"Our life before moving to Washington was filled with simple joys...Saturdays at soccer games, Sundays at grandma's house...and a date night for Barack and me was either dinner or a movie, because as an exhausted mom, I couldn't stay awake for both."
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"Considerable research on successful soccer players and their developmental history, affirms that a good percentage of them have spent time in isolation, working on soccer skills."
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"I get asked this a lot: Why has soccer not succeeded? My answer is, soccer has succeeded. It is already the fastest growing youth participation sport in the U.S. It has already succeeded at the youth level, no question."
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"Soccer isn't the same as Bach or Buddhism. But it is often more deeply felt than religion, and just as much a part of the community's fabric, a repository of traditions."
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"Football's a difficult business and aren't they prima donnas. But it's a wonderful game."
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"A penalty is a cowardly way to score."
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"We need to look at our nannying, mollycoddled, politically correct culture in my view, which stops kids from going out and playing competitive sport. I also think we need to look at the shear fatness of the regulations which control people who want to help kids play sport."
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"Great genetics are not necessarily a precursor for success in the game. Brazilian Legend Pelé has often said that soccer stars are not born. Without proper soccer training a player will never reach his full potential. It is true that great speed would benefit someone who plays as a winger but would not be as useful for a goalkeeper. The greatest advantage of soccer is that it is not as discriminating as basketball or volleyball. There are no limitations when it comes to physique and it all comes down to individual soccer skills."
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"How much soccer training is it needed to become a top player? It depends on the efficiency of your training routine. Setting long and short-term goals is a must. When planning out a soccer training regime, one must strive for realistic and consistent program that will diminish specific weaknesses. Broad versatility of soccer skills is the Nirvana of every dedicated trainee."
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