Ousmane Dembele Quotes

I played for Barcelona, for Ajax, where it's important to develop and integrate young talent.

You can never know if there will be a second Cruyff, someone with a great personality who can grow up and make it into the squad of the club they love. But what is certain is that, in the Champions League, there will be big clubs producing these players forever.

I want to help grow the game in India and encourage young kids to play football.

I think that it is advantageous to join Bayern Munich at a young age.

A lot of the guys who played in the 1995 final for Ajax had been there since the age of 12 or 13. Patrick Kluivert and Edgar Davids had been there from age seven or eight, so I had a lot of catching up to do.

There has been a great list of players who cut their teeth in Europe.

German football is like English football. The Germans and the English do not play like a Brazilian side. They have to improve, bring up their young players, who have character.

It's disappointing to see how football, the world's No. 1 sport, is not No. 1 when it comes to development. It seems to me that a wealth of practical football knowledge is being squandered.

For me, playing through all the youth teams at Borussia Dortmund was a really good experience because I was able to play against talented opponents at a relatively early age.

For the fans, for the club, for the young players, I want to show there is a pathway at Fulham for young players to go through in the first team.

In Germany, young players are given more time, more patience. In England, they prefer to buy already-high-level players rather than spending some time building up a really talented young guy.

You can only advise young players to make the step to Liverpool.

If you look at most youngsters, they have worked well under Van Gaal. I had never heard of Thomas Muller at Bayern Munich before Van Gaal managed him, and he's now one of the best players in the world.

You look at a club like Chelsea, and you know it won't be easy to get into that team. Sometimes you have to go away, play regular first team football, and show Chelsea that you are ready to play for them.

Ultimately, good players need to play and they don't always at a young age in England.

We are looking to get counties to play their young England players earlier, and the first reports from the counties are that it is working well. It also helps us to prepare in a better fashion.

I think the best place to work in football is England.

Football's about the young players, bringing youth team players through to the first team and hopefully getting the best out of them so they can go on to play for their country.

These kids are the future of the National Football League. They're the next generation that will be playing high school football, NCAA football, and some even to the pros.

I had some very good players and some wonderful young players hitting the scene. Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Michael Owen - we had something tangible to work with and move forward.

It's very important that Manchester United have four or five young players every year from the youth system.

Profit and fame will not develop Indian football. Professionals, technique development, legacy specialists, and experts in football business, will develop India as football country.

Little details about young footballers catch your eye when you have been around a big club for a long time. At first, it can be minor things, like the way certain young players stand out from the group when the academy lads cross paths with the senior team on their way to training in the morning.

Of course that's Ajax development, giving young players a chance.

Me being at Coventry, instead of a big Premier League club, probably helped me develop. You don't get put in the academy system, playing Under-18s and Under-23s.