“Love is about mutual respect, apart from attraction.”
“I dressed more like a pop star, I suppose, rather than the traditional blazer and tall trousers other players went for.”
“That thing about being an icon, the fifth Beatle, I just found it so freaky.”
“I used to rush home to see ‘Match Of The Day.’ Whatever I was doing, I wouldn’t miss it.”
“You can’t trust very many people.”
“My long hair and the sideburns made me stand out, really, because my hairstyle was completely different to the other footballers of that era.”
“The best thing about being a dad? Well, I think it’s just the thing that every man wants – to have a son and heir.”
“In 1969, I gave up women and alcohol – it was the worst 20 minutes of my life.”
“I’ve stopped drinking, but only while I’m asleep.”
“I’ve always been a bit of a gypsy.”
“Maybe ‘loner’ is too strong a word, but I’ve always enjoyed being on my own.”
“I became a beach bum.”
“I noticed that when I touched the ball on the field, you could hear this shrill noise in the crowd with all the birds screaming like at a Beatles concert.”
“Football is big business – you can’t get away from it. But you have to separate that side from the playing.”
“I’d have to be superman to do some of the things I’m supposed to have done, I’ve been at six different places at six different times.”
“I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.”
“The nice thing is that when people come up to me, it’s the football they remember, not all the other rubbish.”
“I used to go missing a lot… Miss Canada, Miss United Kingdom, Miss World.”
“If you make up your own mind, you can only blame yourself.”
“I even found it difficult to watch myself playing on TV because I couldn’t identify with the person on the screen. I couldn’t get to grips with it. It was as if it was all happening to someone else.”
“Football is a sad game.”
“I was born with a great gift, and sometimes with that comes a destructive streak.”
“People say you have to hit rock bottom, and, I can tell you, almost dying is as rock bottom as it gets.”
“I was ill, and everyone could see it but me.”
“I always wanted more – more of everything.”
“I definitely don’t think that money can buy you love. It can buy you affection but certainly not love.”
“I can remember earning ã5,000 a game playing for Hibs at the end of the Seventies. They let me commute from London, train on the Friday and play on Saturday. That lasted until my friends at the Inland Revenue decided to take two-thirds. That wasn’t very entertaining for me.”
“There isn’t a single player I would pay to watch. You can say Thierry Henry, he’s a fabulous striker, with pace and power, but a great entertainer needs to have charisma, too. Does he have charisma? No.”
“I was the one who took football off the back pages and put it on to page one.”
“I was 19 or 20 when The Beatles were at their peak, and I was coming up to the peak of my career, too. I was also the first footballer to have long hair, and that’s how I got my nickname ‘the Fifth Beatle.’”
“I have always thought I was the best ever player.”
“David Beckham has never impressed me.”
“There are good players, there are great players, and there are those few at the pinnacle – the Peles, Cruyffs and Maradonas.”
“We were the first generation to have to deal with the modern stardom of football. Some handled it better than others.”
“It all went wrong with football, the thing I loved most of all, and from there, my life slowly fell apart.”
“I’m lucky that, despite all the bad press I’ve had over the years, the public still seems to like me.”
“Nobody knows me.”
“I don’t have any regrets. I made all my own decisions.”
“When I look back on my life as a whole, it is impossible for me not to feel blessed.”
“Dave Mackay is my definition of a superstar. The man broke his leg three times, but wouldn’t be carried off. He walked off.”
“The people of Northern Ireland have sorted out my whole life.”
“I rate Fabien Barthez and played with two great keepers in Alex Stepney and Harry Gregg.”
“When I was playing, there were always lots of teams in contention for the league – Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool, Leeds. Every week was a big game and a big battle.”
“Players today moan about the number of games, but when you’re young, you can’t play enough.”
“There are so many memories for me in Manchester. Everywhere I go, I think, ‘I used to have boutiques here, clubs there, restaurants in that area.’”
“It’s a big compliment that so many people want to see me. For them, it’s all about football. That’s what they remember about me.”
“Drink is the only opponent I have been unable to beat.”
“At the start of the season, there are 16 teams in the top division looking behind them, making sure they avoid relegation. The fear starts in the boardroom, comes down to managers and through to players. The fans sense it.”
“From the FA to UEFA and FIFA, there’s a naivety, a lack of knowledge and understanding and packed with people who are out of touch.”
“The onus is on the managers to send out an attacking formation and to tell their players to be bold.”
“I used to dream about taking the ball ’round the keeper, stopping it on the line, and then getting on my hands and knees and heading it into the net. When I scored against Benfica in the 1968 European Cup final, I nearly did it. I left the keeper for dead, but then I chickened out.”
“My one big regret is that I didn’t play on for ten more years.”
“I was probably the first footballer ever to have a pop-star profile, and my agent was right when he said we could put my name on stair rods and sell them to people in bungalows.”
“If I’d been born ugly, you’d never have heard of Pele.”
“Players now have a groin injury for months and months, and I often think they don’t really give a toss whether they’re playing or not because they’re getting paid anyway.”
“Just as I wanted to outdo everyone when I played, I had to outdo everyone when we were out on the town.”
“I got my buzz from playing.”
“They’ll forget all the rubbish when I’ve gone, and they’ll remember the football. If only one person thinks I’m the best player in the world, that’s good enough for me.”
“One reason I don’t want to play in England again is because we don’t have any personalities.”
“As long as I stay in training and play well, I don’t see what objection there can be to what I do off the field.”
“In England, when an athlete gets to the top, we do our best to destroy him.”
“I have really been disillusioned with soccer in England.”
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