Top 40 Soccer Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Everything is practice.”

— Pelé

2. “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”

— Pelé

Also featured in: Success Quotes

3. “Keep working even when no one is watching.”

— Alex Morgan

4. “If you do not believe you can do it then you have no chance at all.”

— Arsene Wenger

5. “If you are first you are first. If you are second, you are nothing.”

— Bill Shankly

6. “I once cried because I had no shoes to play soccer, but one day, I met a man who had no feet.”

— Zinedine Zidane

7. “My heroes were always soccer players.”

— Ronaldinho

8. “You will go through tough times, it’s about getting through them.”

— David Beckham

9. “I’m living a dream I never want to wake up from.”

— Cristiano Ronaldo

10. “All I know of morality I learned from football.”

— Albert Camus

Also featured in: Football Quotes

11. “Behind every kick of the ball there has to be a thought.”

— Dennis Bergkamp

12. “I don’t believe there is such a thing as a ‘born’ soccer player. Perhaps you are born with certain skills and talents, but quite frankly it seems impossible to me that one is actually born to be an ace soccer player.”

— Pelé

13. “All human history moves towards one great goal.”

— James Joyce

14. “The great thing about him, is that he will not quit.”

— Cristiano Ronaldo

Also featured in: Quitting Quotes

15. “The number 7 shirt is an honor and a responsibility. I hope it brings me a lot of luck.”

— Cristiano Ronaldo

16. “If it doesn’t matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?”

— Vince Lombardi

17. “I’d rather play tennis than go to the dentist. I’d rather play soccer than go to the doctor. I’d rather play Hurk than go to work. Hurk? Hurk? What’s Hurk? I don’t know but it MUST be better than work!”

— Shel Silverstein

18. “The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game.”

— Bill Shankly

19. “Look at my haircut. I am ready for the war. The objective is to win the Premiershp. I don’t want to dominate, to finish without defeat, record points or goals or consecutive wins. The Premiership is so difficult you cannot be focused on that. I just think about winning.”

— Jose Mourinho

20. “Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pele. I have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a soccer player, but how to be like a man.”

— Pelé

21. “When you lose a person you love so much, surviving the loss is difficult.”

— Cristiano Ronaldo

22. “I take pride in the fact that people go home having felt that for 90 minutes today, life is beautiful – and that’s it, basically. That’s why professional football exists.”

— Arsene Wenger

Also featured in: Football Quotes

23. “If you’re in the penalty area and don’t know what to do with the ball, put it in the net and we’ll discuss the options later.”

— Bob Paisley

24. “I have practically no private life. I’m already used to this and ready for it. Yes, sometimes it is hard, but it is the choice I made.”

— Cristiano Ronaldo

25. “I don’t know if we are the best team in the world. I am lucky to be playing alongside some of the best players around. It’s a dream.”

— Zinedine Zidane

26. “A penalty is a cowardly way to score.”

— Pelé

27. “After we played Sporting last week, the lads in the dressing room talked about him constantly, and on the plane back from the game they urged me to sign him. That’s how highly they rated him.”

— Cristiano Ronaldo

28. “They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I wasn’t on that particular job.”

— Brian Clough

29. “Why lie? I’m not going to be a hypocrite and say the opposite of what I think, like some others do.”

— Cristiano Ronaldo

30. “He’s a gift from heaven, he is truly a gift from heaven. Whatever he touches turns to gold.”

— Cristiano Ronaldo

31. “I never promise anything. I don’t promise anything to my mum. I don’t promise anything to the supporters.”

— Cristiano Ronaldo

32. “A champion is someone who does not settle for that day’s practice, that day’s competition, that day’s performance. They are always striving to be better. They don’t live in the past.”

— Briana Scurry

33. “Football is a thinly disguised re-enactment of hunting; we played it before we were human.”

— Carl Sagan

34. “I like physical exercise. I actually like sports in general. I really like snowboarding and playing soccer, too.”

— Valentino Rossi

35. “Ronaldo can do whatever he wants as a footballer. There are some things he does with the ball that make me touch my head and wonder how he did it.”

— Cristiano Ronaldo

36. “I don’t think about one trick or the other, they just happen.”

— Cristiano Ronaldo

37. “I want no epitaphs of profound history and all that type of thing. I contributed. I would hope they would say that, and I would hope somebody liked me.”

— Brian Clough

38. “I have never played against anybody like that in my life and I was pleased to be taken off.”

— Cristiano Ronaldo

39. “Soccer is popular because stupidity is popular.”

— Jorge Luis Borges

40. “So, Arsenal have signed Arsene Wenger because his name sounds a bit like the club. How long before Man Utd sign Stefan Kuntz?”

— Frank Skinner