Football is just like all other things. If it dies one day, then at its earnestness. The game is there to escape reality. If the football degenerates into a question of life and death, then we pull it back into the reality. That is the end of the game.
Jorge Valdano
Football is a game of freedom, vision and feelings. Football makes me happy. When I get onto a football pitch and a football is at my feet then I must play. The stadium is a place for creativity.
Cesar Luis Menotti
I changed myself as a coach. I contend that the main task of the trainer is not to lead an athelete to the summit to become an Olympic champion myself, but (in the written sense) as a therapist: to accompany the athlete on his way to himself.
Baldur Preiml
The best and fastest way to learn a sport is to watch and imitate a champion.
Jean-Claude Killy
Somewhere in there the grace of a ballet dancer joins with the strength of an SAS squaddie, the dignity of an ancient kind, the nerve of a bomb disposal officer.
Eamonn Dunphy on the nature of the goal keeper
For goal keepers nothing changed. You may not concede a goal.
Lev Yaschin on modern football strategy
Successful goal keeping means to be at the correct time in the correct position.
Alex Welsh
I always try to pressure the player for as long as he begins to think. As soon as the attacking player must think, I have got him!
Peter Schmeichel on his behaviour in 1:1 situations
Always prepare for the unexpected.
Alex Welsh
I am often scared by my lack of fear.
Toni Schumacher
Such successful experiences are however always double edged. One loses thereby concentration and also motivation. Luck causes inattention.
Toni Schumacher on big saves
Dealing with the high cross is the yardstick by which top goal keepers are measurerd.
Alex Welsh
The conditions you need to be a good goal keeper are exactly the same conditions you need to be a good sculptor. You must have a very good connection, in both professions, with time and space.
Eduardo Chillida (famous Spanish sculptor)
Pressure? This is just a football match. When you do not know how to feed your children, that is pressure.
Jose Luis Chilavert
A goal keeper must radiate pace. But he must watch out that he thereby doesn't fall asleep.
Sepp Maier
If sterility sets in, standard training doesn't help anymore. The answer is a balancing act: one has to work like one is possessed to be strong and to achieve the skill. Only then can one play like an innocent child.
Toni Schumacher
If you are a goal keeper, it doesn't matter what you save the ball with - if you keep it out, it's not a goal.
Mark Lawrenson