Granit Xhaka Quotes

At the end of the day, guys don't want to foul, especially guys in the starting unit.

Many sports, not just football, have kind of the macho meathead mentality where innovation is almost frowned upon.

Matches are won and lost so many times in the locker room.

After my 10-match ban in 2013 for biting Branislav Ivanovic, I had questioned the double standards and how the fact that no one actually gets hurt is never taken into consideration.

Sport has bercome entertainment....actors play to the crowd; players play to their teammates

Nobody I ever broke bread with - and I see players all the time - talked about using their head running the football. I've seen Barry Sanders and Eric Dickerson and Marcus Allen and Franco Harris, and we've all been together - we were all together at the Super Bowl - and no one talked about using their head.

Even I'm a bit surprised with how easily I've adapted to European football.

I was forced to learn a lot about psychology as a player, and as a captain to get the best out of others. There's still a lot of scepticism about it in sport and the workplace, but dealing with fluctuations of form, and pressure, and being away from home are more important than your cover-drive.

I don't think, when you are involved with England, you can ever write any game or tournament off - that wouldn't be acceptable.

It's not like I played my first football match in England. For me, football is pretty much the same everywhere; the ball is round, but maybe tactically, things are different than at other clubs I've played for.

When I went to work with Garinger, they were good kids and a very good team. But they had a nine-game losing streak, and you can see that they were getting down and depressed and not feeling rewards for their efforts. But when I came in there, I didn't need to teach them much about X's and O's.

When I first came to England to play I saw coaches having a go at players when they made mistakes and they would literally be talking them through the game.

When I'm aggressive, all the other guys are aggressive, and somehow that's how we win games.

In every club, 11 players are happy and the others unhappy. This is correct because if one player doesn't play and is happy, he's crazy.

For every striker, it's important to have the confidence of the coach.

Moral victories are really more for coaches than players.

If you play well on the field, everything will take care of itself.

When I was in the batter's box, I felt sorry for the pitcher.

Sports are a microcosm of society. It just shows how much more competition there is in the world.

A player who dives and wins a penalty in Portugal, or Spain or Italy is considered clever, experienced, cunning, someone who understands the game. In England a player who wins a penalty like that is a cheat.

I used to think the only use for sport was to give small boys something else to kick besides me.

Not only is there more to life than basketball, there's a lot more to basketball than basketball.

There will be internal discipline, but I can envisage both of them playing for Newcastle again. They're top-class players and they don't come along very often.

The longer Jose Mourinho goes on, and on, and on, the more difficult it is for me not to despise him and the set of values he's bringing to football.

Sports can do so much. It's given me confidence, self-esteem, discipline, and motivation.