soccer-players-from-germany

"But when I heard those monkey noises in January 2013, all the pain, all the sadness — it all came out. I snapped. I didn’t care if I got in trouble. I had worked all my life to play for one of the biggest teams in the world, and now I was going to be treated like I was when I was a kid?? I just went, No. I’m done with this. I’m going to fight these guys."

"So I did. I stored my anger inside. I became numb to it."

"They knew what was happening to me. They heard the racism — and they just accepted it. The parents stayed quiet. The referee? Nothing. The coach? “Just ignore it."

"I told him, “You had the power to do something. You did nothing.” When a rival player wanted me to stay on, I said, “You shut the fuck up as well. What did you do about it? Do you like what they’re doing?”"

"When players like [Gareth] Bale and [Cristiano] Ronaldo are worth around €100 million, Johan [Cruyff] would go in the billions."

"Obviously, Liverpool was in the last years not famous for treating or dealing with women's football outstandingly well. They didn't go down to the Championship for no reason....Now they are back and we have to make sure that we use the situation. It is a wonderful team, great coach and I'm really happy for them to get promoted."

"I think it was my first red card as a manager, I went to the assistant referee and I said: ‘How many wrong decisions are allowed? Because if it’s 15 we have one left.’"

"Look, what I don’t like in life is that (for) a very serious thing, a football manager’s opinion is important. I don’t understand it, It’s not important what famous people say. You have to speak about things in the right manner. Not people with no knowledge, like me, talking about something. People with knowledge should tell the people to do this, do that and everything will be fine, or not. Not football managers. I don’t understand politics, coronavirus... why me? I wear a baseball cap and have a bad shave."

"Sending players off on international duty feels like seeing daughter off on first date, even if it is a good guy, you are slightly concerned"

"For me, football is the only thing more inspiring than the cinema. You wake up in the morning, and the magic was all real."

"That’s the problem these days, whatever bullshit you say nobody will forget it."

"It is not my sport. I don’t like winning with 80% [possession]. Sorry that is not enough for me. Fighting football, not serenity football, that is what I like. What we call in German ‘English’ — rainy day, heavy pitch, 5-5, everybody is dirty in the face and goes home and cannot play for weeks after."

"How do you explain to a blind person what colour is?"

"Mkhitaryan fits us like an arse on a bucket. What he offers is exactly what we need."

"We're facing the greatest challenge there is in football: to play against an Italian team that only needs a draw."

"He likes having the ball, playing football, passes. It's like an orchestra. But it's a silent song. I like heavy metal."

"We will wait for him like a good wife waiting for her husband who is in jail."

"Maybe Klopp is the best manager in the world at creating teams who attack [...] I don’t think there is another team in the world attacking in this way with so many players capable of launching moves in an instant. [...] When Klopp speaks about his football being heavy metal, I understand completely. It is so aggressive. For the fans it is really good."

"They're like the Chinese in business: they see what other people are doing and copy it - just with more money"

"We have a bow and arrow and if we aim well, we can hit the target. The problem is that Bayern has a bazooka."

"I really have to say I love women's football, it's outstanding. The quality of the tournament is insane. England is doing exceptionally well. I saw three games of Germany too, they've been doing really well as well. It's a really good final - two intense teams facing each other. As much as I love England, my heart is with the German side. At a sold out Wembley with an English crowd, it will be a massive challenge for Germany. England are slight favourites playing at home, but Germany has a chance. Most important is the face women's football showed, it's a fantastic game. Women's football, over the last few years, exploded in their development. It's tactically and technically on an incredibly high level. The intensity of the games - physically it's really, really good and I love watching it. Congratulations to all the teams that were a part of it because it is a commercial for football, not only women's football."

"Of course! We have a great team, great players, and in football, it's everything possible."

"I am a Gunner!"

"Özil reminds me of Zidane!"

"Mesut Özil's move to Arsenal is "bad news to me"."

"One minute? Where the fuck does one minute come from?"

"The magical touch of Jürgen Klinsmann continues!"

"Jurgen Klinsmann isn't getting fired for losing to Mexico. He won't get fired before his contract expires, unless he fails to qualify for the World Cup. U.S. Soccer owes him millions of dollars and they don't want to pay him and another coach at the same time. That's fine. He's not any more or less successful than the last two USMNT coaches and he's done a solid job with his duties outside of being the senior head coach. But despite this, he makes USMNT fans really, really mad. So why do so many people want this seemingly adequate, if unspectacular coach to get fired? It's because of the absolutely absurd things that come out of his mouth. American soccer fans have listened to a steady stream of trash for four years, and they're really tired of it."

"The experiment with Klinsmann was a failure. We were only working on our fitness in training. He didn't care much for tactical stuff. It was up to the players to come together before a match and discuss how we were going to play. All the players knew after about eight weeks that it was not going to work out with Klinsmann. The remainder of that campaign was nothing but limiting the damage."

"Let's not quibble. For the good of the USMNT, the United States Soccer Federation needs to relieve Jurgen Klinsmann of his managerial duties. That's not a reaction purely based on Wednesday's dire performance against Jamaica, though that match should serve as the final nail in Klinsmann's coffin, so to speak. No, this has been building for quite awhile, thanks to a lot of mediocre results, frustrating losses and head-scratching decisions. He's supposed to be making the entire national team program better, but the senior side has stalled in their development, and it's made his position untenable. Too often, the USMNT look utterly unprepared for their opposition's tactics. Take the Jamaica match as an example. Everyone who's watched Jamaica play at this Gold Cup knew that they'd play tight, organized soccer, then try to win the ball back in midfield and launch lightning-fast counters, using their pace and athleticism to their advantage. They would concede possession and try to capitalize on the few turnovers the USMNT committed. And guess what? That's exactly how they played."

"I think he's saying there should be more than a minute."

"Despite setbacks, Klinsmann has to date managed to improve the USMNT's overall results while also installing a bright future. And if the future looks solid and the present doesn't look nearly as bad as we seem to want to think, there's really no need for a move yet. This marriage is going to end one day, and it probably won't be pretty, but it's not time just yet. There is a bit more water that needs stirring first."

"When you hire Jurgen Klinsmann, you're hiring someone who is going to ask questions, pick at scabs, make as many behind-the-scenes changes as he is allowed to make and probably eventually get fired after he has alienated too many people. You're also signing up to probably be better off when he leaves than you were when he arrived. That's the way it worked for the German national team and, to some degree, for Bayern Munich, and that's the way it will probably be with the USMNT."

"When he was hired to basically hold two distinct, vital roles within U.S. Soccer, manager and technical director, Klinsmann set out to achieve a single goal. Create a program that can compete with the world's heavyweights. To date, this has resulted in both his brightest and darkest moments. The U.S. has seemingly played its best against the most relevant teams it has faced. Germany, Italy, Mexico, et cetera. But this approach has also revealed something pretty damning: he doesn't give a single crap about CONCACAF opponents. The loss to Jamaica further established that; while the U.S. was the better team for a majority the match, they seemed ill-prepared for the things Jamaica did the best."

"Considering Klinsmann's charge was to both create results and develop the player pool for the future, he's done fine. Not great, not amazing, but fine. He's come up with some nice wins, and he's introduced exciting, likable young players like DeAndre Yedlin and Gyasi Zardes to a larger audience. Losses like the one to Jamaica happen in this sport. The timing was horrifying, but it was still a match the U.S. wins more often than not."

"International soccer is the ultimate in small samples. In many ways, the volume of results is even smaller than it is for college football. Few games truly matter, and for the United States, most of those that do are against smaller Caribbean or Central American countries. Meanwhile, friendlies can be interpreted with whatever spin you choose. Overreact to bad losses and ignore good wins? Go for it. Direct opposite? Have at it. You're somewhat correct either way. With such a small pool of results from which to choose, the decision to fire a coach is going to be based on either tiny samples or large waves of meaningless matches. No matter what criteria we choose, we'll probably be overreacting to something."

"Klinsmann is a giggler."

"Are you fucking blind? Are you fucking blind? Are you fucking blind?"

"We have to sit together and discuss things, who we're counting on, how we want to build towards the next couple games, and there's not much time. That will be a lot of conversations coming up the next couple days."

"What we didn't do well during the second half was simply to keep the ball. We ran a lot after; we won a lot of balls and we couldn't calm the game down. There was a struggle that really went through the second half. We should've done better."

"I don't need to say anything to them. Everybody can express his opinion, and not everyone likes you. That's totally fine. I'm not here to be liked. I'm trying to do a good job and I'm privileged to have that role and represent the U.S. soccer program. It's a privilege for me. I do my best, to my capabilities, and leave the judgment out there for you guys and for people who want to express themselves."

"What Tim played tonight was just phenomenal, outstanding. He kept us in that game for a long time. We are proud to have him with us. It was an absolutely amazing match tonight and you can give him the biggest compliment in the world. It's a bummer for us ending on the losing side after a game of 120 minutes that gave everything to the fans, a real drama, a thriller. We had enough possession to equalize that game at the end, but a big compliment to Belgium and congratulations to them. I'm very proud of our team. Every player on the field made their country proud with this performance in this World Cup. All of the players just went beyond their capabilities and I told them they should take a lot of very positive stuff back home with them."

"Fussball ist wie Schach, nur ohne Würfel."

"I watched Kevin-Prince Boateng's games and I think he is a very hardworking player and is very good for AC Milan. And the work that he puts in for AC Milan is great."

"Kevin-Prince Boateng is one of the best players in Europe. He has strength and has the ability to break into attack from midfield."

"At senior level, Prince will need to wean himself off the world of fantasy football."

"Believe me: Kevin-Prince Boateng is a great guy. Who even now has a lot of friends on the team. Kevin-Prince Boateng is a player, who has dozens of options, as he passes by an opponent. I myself had as a player two: past left over, or right. Kevin-Prince Boateng can receive the ball in a hundred ways."