Ball player Quote by Daniel Finkelstein

Obviously, everyone looks at whether we bring young footballers into the first team, that's one of the goals. But I wouldn't discard someone who…

— Per Mertesacker

I would have loved to have been a footballer like my great uncle Matt Busby, but I knew quite early on that I wasn't…

— Brendan Coyle

There is a common mistake people make. They say, 'We need to play the young English boys.' Of course, but only if they are…

— Gianfranco Zola

We often compare footballers with players of the past.

— Didier Deschamps

Perception is a big thing in football and people need to be more careful about how they choose to perceive young players in the…

— Eniola Aluko

There's always been a nasty strain of class prejudice ingrained in the condemnation of football's 'undeserving rich,' as if the working class is uniquely…

— Mark Fisher

Kids are learning to play. That's why we're seeing an emergence. That's why we're seeing the Under-17s and Under-20s doing better in international football.

— Gary Lineker

“Four years of football are calculated to breed in the average man more of the ingredients of success in life than almost any academic…

— Knute Rockne

To compare players at different stages in their career shouldn't happen.

— Ruben Loftus-Cheek

Nobody expects a footballer to have any kind of an IQ, which is a bit of an unfair stereotype.

— Frank Lampard

A lot of kids, when they get to 18 or 19, they start getting flashy and forgetting about the real basics of being a professional footballer.

— Reiss Nelson

Football will always be about the results because if you are winning and taking good results you are not asking me about the young…

— Marco Silva