National Team Quotes

When I first met him [James Galanis], he just said, "Look, if you want to be a professional soccer player, if you want to make the national team, you have to do everything possible to work hard. You’ve got to put it number one."

Individually, I always want to give the most. I want to help the Brazilian National Team the best way possible, whether is with goals, assists or even a slide tackle, whatever. All that matters is to help the team.

I want to help the Brazilian National Team the best way possible, whether is with goals, assists or even a slide tackle, whatever.

That's the dream. Being on the U.S. National team and winning the World Cup. I'll take the win anyway I can get it.

Some of their players are internationals; some play for their national team.

The national team comes before everything.

It's pretty hard to say no when a vice president-elect and a president-elect ask you to be part of the national team.

I wanted a T-shirt that says 'USA National Team'. It turned out to be a very smart decision.

I spent my first twenty years in Morocco, where I coached the national team.

When I first made the team I didn't even know there was a national team. So to meit was all new. When I got asked to go on the trip to China I was 16. I said, 'well you know what I have to ask my parents.' So I called home and I am like, 'Mom and Dad can I go to China?' They were like 'sure.'

Anytime you have any opportunity to be with the national team it's an honor and a challenge, and it is something I am looking forward to.

I do not think about the national team too much because footballistically it is not of too much interest.

Being named as a finalist for the USA Basketball National Team is an unbelievable feeling and an opportunity that is truly humbling. It is an honor to be included with such talented players and I look forward to the chance to represent my country this summer.

I wear the number 10 Jersey for the US National Team in honour of the Greatest athlete I have ever seen: Messi.

International soccer has been a big part of my love for the sport. I love the Men's National Team. I can say that they're my favorite sports team.

In Latin America the border between soccer and politics is vague. There is a long list of governments that have fallen or been overthrown after the defeat of the national team.

If there's a national-team player, he has to do extra work. He has to do extra weeks, and he can't go on vacation even if he says: 'Well, but I'm supposed now to have six weeks off.' If he comes and says that, then I give him a hug and say: 'Have fun the six weeks, but don't come back here.'

While the World Cup is great every four years, I think people struggle to get themselves excited about qualifiers against the smaller nations. It will take some good performances from the national team to get the feel-good factor back, as far as the England team goes at least.

The European Commission says that people who are working the country can play in the national team. Perhaps Didier Drogba can play for England after five years. We have to protect against that.

It is always disappointing when a player is not prepared to stick it out and fight for his place in a national team.

Portugal have a national team called Cristiano Ronaldo and a group of players who run after him.

I've signed a contract with the Dutch national team until 2006. So I can win the World Cup not once but twice.

When I wear the national team shirt, its sole contact with my skin makes it stand on an end.

This Mayagüez gold, my third consecutive with the national team, has a strawberry flavor.

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.

When I was younger it was twice a day with a game on the weekend. Then when I got older, three times a day everyday in college and on the national team.

I'd give my life to be the national team coach.

That's a funny thing, because it's 3 rivals who get a long great on the club that are friends [Neimar, Lionel Messi and Louise Alberto Suarez]. And it's something kinda impossible to imagine that it would happen. But it did and things have been working for us. Of course we mess with each other when someone goes to the national team, but we get a long great.

The people of Cleveland hate soccer. But it's my favourite thing and I follow the U.S. men's national team around when they play whenever I can.

If my soccer career were over, I would still come here because of the people. And despite the fact I've had to skip some school for National Team purposes, I am looking forward to holding that Carolina degree as soon as I can get my hands on it.

When I got to the senior national team, there was another Ronaldo, so they started calling me Ronaldinho because I was younger.

I am not a supporter of buying a national team.

I wanted to play football or be a boxer, but my dad didn't want that because of all the impact. But in 1992 I was watching short track, and it was obscure, but they looked like superheroes in their tight outfits, and I thought it was amazing. I wanted to do that. I made the national team at 14.

The president requested me to restore order in the national team. I have been designated to be part of the official delegation to Egypt to help boost the morale of our players.

Ive known since I went to the national team when I was very young that I was a different bird.

My goal is to get on the national team. People joke that we'll be able to go to Beijing in 2008, but it's just jokes right now. Hopefully I'll be able to make it a reality.

If the Russian government continues to pump money into it and makes their national teams train in Sochi and just sort of prop it up as a point of pride, then perhaps. But I don't think anybody living there was begging for multiple 40,000-seat venues to be plopped down in the city.

One training device is the ergometer. I never owned one, never trained on one, and practically never used one. The few national team tests I took on ergs were dismal failures, which worked wonders to further my dislike of these beastly creatures. Boring. Tedious. Noisy. Ergs have greatly cheapened rowing. Graceless. Greasy. Grim. The erg is to rowing what having sex by yourself is to having sex. Stop it!

FC Barcelona is the national team of Catalonia

It was a dream start, a perfect start for us. We had to start qualification away from home in Portugal, the group favourites - and I still think they are the group favourites. It was a historic result to win against a big team in Europe, so I am very happy for my country and for my people. They were all looking to the national team. This victory is for them and we will try to do the best that we can until the end of qualification.

I think Barcelona and the Spanish national team have been good for soccer because there are a lot of teams that come up playing from the back : with the goalie, the defense, moving up a defender to midfield, playing attacking soccer. I think fans want to see that. They want to see beautiful soccer, a spectacle, and Barcelona does that.

What we have to do is to find a solution that the interests of the national teams are respecting the interests of the clubs. And also the clubs they shall respect the interests and the aspirations of national teams.

I've had the privilege of coaching the best basketball team in the history of the world, and that's the USA national team. I've had a chance to coach them for eight years. If you were to ask me if I could end my career only coaching one team for the rest of my coaching career, I don't think it could get better than that, especially with the players that I've had during those eight years. When you've coached at that level, you know, you've coached those players, it's pretty hard to say, I would rather coach anybody else.

Being successful means good results for the national team at first in the regional competitions like the Asian Cup and keeping in mind to go for Gold at a World Cup in the future.

In 10 years' time I still want to be at Arsenal, winning trophies for my club and for the national team as well. I've been there since I was nine or 10. It feels like I've always been there, the club's been great to me and I feel I owe them that to be there and to stay around.

I am a believer in passing the ball on the ground, I was lucky to be part of teams like that at Arsenal, with the French national team and with Monaco and at Barcelona. I know you can win in other ways, but I believe that is the way football should be played.

"Embrace Of The Serpent" has been a big deal for Colombians outside the Amazon. It's been showing continuously there for more than three months. And the Oscar nomination, the film's producer says Colombians are comparing it to having the national team in the World Cup.

Since the national team doesn't have a stadium yet, they'll come to play here, at Sofia airport.

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.

Our junior national teams feature increasing numbers of kids from immigrant backgrounds, but who have grown up in Germany. Their roots are elsewhere, but they feel German. They draw on two cultures, and I believe that's been a real and visible factor in the football we've been playing. One of the best and abiding images was Cacau, a Christian with Brazilian roots, celebrating a goal with Mesut Ozil, a Muslim from a Turkish background. Ozil jumped on to Cacau's shoulders, and they gazed up into the stands, both wearing Germany shirts. It was wonderfully symbolic.