Association Football

"We are together, more experienced and a stronger squad of players than we were against Barcelona last season"

"We also have experience and good quality players on the team and are champions in our own country, so nothing will frighten us"

"Bayern are are a good team, but we did not mind who it was we would face. We just know we will give everything to help the team get to the next round"

"Personally, I'm enjoying my time here in Kazakhstan and am very happy with the incredible support we receive here during matches"

"The passion and belief for football in the country are massive. It's just amazing how people turn out to support us. I feel like being at home here and always happy with the kind of supporters we have"

"We have a job to do as we do not want to disappoint the fans who brought us this far. Their support means everything to us"

"We have prepared adequately for the game. I don’t see ourselves coming back with a loss. We are looking forward to winning the first leg and the second leg"

"These games are very important for us"

"I think they are good preparation for the Africa Cup of Nations, and, when you look at South Africa, they have a very good team and have qualified for the World Cup; it will be a very tough game. We are ready to perform"

"Thank you. It’s a big honour and I am very humbled. Being recognised at this level means a lot, not just for me but for my team and my country," she exclusively told"

"It shows that the work we have been doing as a group is being noticed. Also congratulations to Barbra and Racheal for making it in the best eleven"

"I think it comes down to discipline, communication and teamwork. At the back, we work as a unit. Everyone knows their role and we support each other. Personally, I always try to stay focused and read the game well and also follow the coach’s instructions"

"It’s been a very good journey. We stayed unbeaten in a very tough group, which says a lot about our progress. The biggest positive has been our unity. We play for each other and for the flag. Every player gave their all"

"All the games were tough, but I think the match against Morocco tested us the most. They are strong technically and had the home crowd behind them. I stayed focused by trusting my preparation, staying close to my teammates, and making sure our line stayed focussed"

"We believe in ourselves. Even when people doubted us before, we kept working hard. I think what sets us apart is our hunger and our unity. We don’t rely on individuals — we move as one team with one dream"

"It’s been a journey of learning and growth. I started young and had to work hard to earn my place. Being part of this national team has taught me discipline and made me stronger, both as a footballer and a person"

"Yes, like any athlete, I have had challenges sometimes with form, sometimes with injuries. But I always remind myself why I started. I have a strong support system in my family and teammates and I trust in God’s timing"

"My country inspires me. Wearing the Copper Queens jersey is something I never take for granted. I also think of young girls watching us because I want them to believe they can achieve anything if they work hard"

"Wearing the jersey means everything. It’s an honour and a duty. Every time I step on the pitch, I remember where I come from and who I am playing for. Mentally, I stay ready by focusing on the team’s goals and trusting my training"

"It was difficult to accept [Nali’s injury] but we now need to accept. There is nothing we can do. I am the one who is there so I need to prove people wrong so that they trust me that even without Hazel, we can take Zambia far"

"I want to prove people wrong, they need to trust me, I need their support,” Musonda said in an interview with FAZ Media"

"I need to have concentration, on the pitch and in training. The first game is very important. We need to work hard as a whole team"

"The preparations are going on well. As a team our target is to go past the group stage"

"It was difficult to accept at first, but now I just have to accept and prove the fans wrong to have faith in me without Hazel. I can still put the country on the map"

"The Germany game was okay, but tough I just went with a positive mind of hardwork. Now that Hazel is injured, I just need to concentrate and keep pushing my teammates"

"We need to win that game, first game is very important according to our preparations. We just need to work hard as a team"

"I want to put up an impressive performance and join a top-flight team in Spain or anywhere else and ensure people have faith in me"

"The game was very hard but we tried by all means to use the chances that we had to come out with the victory that we were looking for"

"I think I have tried what I am capable of doing and I think I have helped the team carry the day of today’s victory"

"I need to score some goals because I had some chances in the first half but it was just an unlucky day for me. In the next game, I will make sure I use the chances that I get"

"We were playing for the glory of the USSR and for the love of football, not for the money."

"I realized that I can only stand if they throw a ball at me. I reach out and parry. Now I teach the kids how to do it, they go home and say that Dasaev is a good teacher. This is what I wanted from me, this is happiness."

"Speaking of Buffon, I am very surprised that at his age he continues to play without ever failing. It is an example to be inspired by."

"The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It's nothing of the kind. The game is about glory. It's about doing things in style. With a flourish, it's about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom."

"You were kind of an outlier if you even liked football and you were a girl in England. So to come over here and have that opportunity? I've always said America is the land of opportunity. It certainly was for me."

"after dinner all the youths of the city goes out into the fields for the very popular game of ball."

"All that was missing to have made it a really smart 1972 middle-class party would have been a few reefers, but footballers wouldn't touch such things. Some footballers might have moved into the middle classes but there are two things they won't have at their parties — drugs and homosexuals."

"You were kind of an outlier if you even liked football and you were a girl in England. So to come over here and have that opportunity? I've always said America is the land of opportunity. It certainly was for me."

"Football is a simple game. 22 women chase a ball for ninety minutes and at the end, the United States win."

"Unlike the sports of basketball, badminton, or volleyball, soccer can't trace its roots back to a specific person, place, or time. In fact, it's completely likely that a variation of the sport was played in prehistoric times. Generally it's believed that a game like soccer was played around 400 B.C. in China, and there's evidence of a similar game that was played in A.D. 300 in Rome. These games, while similar to today's soccer in the sense that there were goal lines and passing, didn't have the hand restrictions that today's game has. During the Middle Ages, adults and children played a form of soccer in the streets of London, but the rules changed depending on who was playing, and so did the size of the game; entire towns participated. These games became so addictive and absorbing that in the 1300s the king of England actually tried to ban the sport because it was interfering with young men's military training."

"The most precious thing the writer owns is his pen and the most precious thing the footballer owns is his shoes."

"The ball is round and the game lasts for 90 minutes. (Der Ball ist rund und das Spiel dauert 90 Minuten.)"

"on 22 June 1941, the day the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, the decisive act of the entire conflict, ninety thousand spectators watched the German league final in Berlin. What were they thinking of?"

"Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for ninety minutes and at the end, the Germans win."

"Fussball ist wie Schach, nur ohne Würfel."

"We were playing for the glory of the USSR and for the love of football, not for the money."

"Someone said: "football is more important than life and death to you" and I said: "Listen, it's more important than that.""

"In the beginning there was chaos, and soccer was without form. Then came the Victorians, who codified it, and after them the theorists, who analyzed it. It wasn't until the late 1920s that tactics in anything resembling a modern sense came to be recognized or discussed, but as early as the 1870s there was an acknowledgment that the arrangement of players on the field made a significant difference to the way the game was played. In its earliest form, though, soccer knew nothing of such sophistication. Various cultures can point to games that involved kicking a ball, but, for all the claims of Rome, Greece, Egypt, the Caribbean, Mexico, China, or Japan to be the home of soccer, the modern sport has its roots in the mob game of medieval Britain. Rules-inasmuch as they existed at all-varied from place to place, but the game essentially involved two teams trying to force a roughly spherical object to a target at opposite ends of a notional field. It was violent, unruly, and anarchic, and it was repeatedly outlawed. Only in the early nineteenth century, when the public schools-their thinking shaped by advocates of muscular Christianity-decided that sports could be harnessed for the moral edification of their students, did anything approaching what we would today recognize as soccer emerge. Before there could be tactics, though, there had, first of all, to be a coherent set of rules."

"It's the belly of the country. There are all kinds of footballers, I don't see them as angels or demons, but as professionals who believe in their dreams."