Dimitri Payet Quotes

To me, as long as I can play and I'm not hurting the team, I'm playing.

You don't play eight years and all of a sudden let your game go down just for a trade.

You have to be ready for all the games and be at 100 per cent if you want to win in this League.

For me, I just focus on playing, playing at a high level. And when you can't do that any longer, you've got to get off the train.

I want to play as long as possible at the highest level.

If I'm tired, I'm coming out. I won't do that to my teammates and stay on the field when I know I'm not going to be able to do it.

I am a professional footballer and as long as I'm able to make a contribution, I'll be doing all I can to stay at the top.

As a competitor, you want to get on the field as soon as you can. But you want to do best for your team, your career and everything. That's not up me to decide.

All the top guys are complete players, and if I'm not, I won't be there.

When I was playing I never wished I was doing anything else. I think being a professional athlete is the finest thing a man can do.

I don't want people losing respect for me as a player. I want to go out in every game and perform to the highest level. I have no retirement plans. I've had a lot of injuries but I want to continue playing.

I think the sport of wrestling, which I became involved with at the age of 14... I competed until I was 34, kind of old for a contact sport. I coached the sport until I was 47. I think the discipline of wrestling has given me the discipline I have to write.

I let my racket do the talking. That's what I am all about, really. I just go out and win tennis matches.

If you keep performing, and if you stay healthy, you keep playing.

I don't care if it's a preseason game or not. You want to win.

Football is football and talent is talent. But the mindset of your team makes all the difference.

My whole career I'm used to playing a lot of games.

I would love to be a player today. I had the right personality for it.

I don't know whether it's the athlete in me or the passion I have for the game: I always think that I can step back on the field and play.

You get into sports with the idea that you want to win. If you aren't trying to win, what's the point in being involved?

From the age of 6, when I won my first race in skiing, I was on the national ski teams, really until Olympics in '72, so I always had a lot of discipline and commitment to achieve as much as I could in good way. Competitiveness doesn't stop when you stop skiing.

It is difficult to take in how long you have been doing one thing when you compete at the highest level and always with the highest intensity.

As long as I am able to compete physically with the younger players, I am going to play.

You're only out there for 90 minutes, and you have to give it everything you've got. It's a game of football, at the end of the day.

Just wanting to play, I think that's my biggest attribute, just wanting to play through whatever I have to in order to go out and compete.