Zico Quotes

If I can join hands with FIFA and other continental bodies to promote football globally, then I can do more than that to raise African football to new heights.

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.

India should go at their own pace and not compete with anyone. They have a league system in place and a huge fan base, but the thing they need the most is a good structure. They need to create a good footprint for football in the future because they have the numbers, but they need to improve the quality of the game.

I'm sorry for Italian football; there's no desire to improve Italian football.

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

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

David Beckham is a patriot, and I am sure he will help in any way he can. Beckham needs to be part of any future plans to remould the England set-up. Beckham and players like him need to be integrated into the set-up in the same way that the Germans take on board former players from Beckenbauer to Rummenigge.

With such a huge fan base, Indian football has a good foundation, and my aim is to become an ambassador of the sport and fly the flag on the international stage for the Indian fans.

I can see that the UAE is growing a lot as a football country, and there is plenty of opportunity to keep going and improve.

If I had the opportunity, I will ask every Nigerian kid to start his career in Germany. The structure they have in the Bundesliga is far from what is obtainable in other leagues.

I run an academy in Spain for young footballers who are released by their clubs and who, in my opinion, deserve a second chance. It is a rewarding job for me, but one that also reveals many of the faults in the English game.

It's a massive compliment to me to be known in Asia because Asia is the way forward in football, along with the Middle East. I believe that strongly.

The philosophy of FIFA is to expand world soccer space, to spread out the world football space.

Clubs in other countries can step up, and we can kick on with women's football even more.

Let's build women's football from the bottom before we get to the top; it's not about building from the top to get to the bottom. We can talk about the Etihad and Man United's ground, the Theatre of Dreams, in a few years' time. Let's fill the Academy Stadiums, the Kingsmeadows, first of all.

I think the difference with Japan was that they didn't bring in too many foreign players. In my opinion at the ISL it's not too good to have too many foreigners playing. The minimum of five Indian players is too less in my opinion. Since it's the ISL, we have to encourage more Indian football.

Europe is leading the world in the sport of football. I want to utilize my experience from Europe to support the development of football in Asian countries.

As players, we need to try to inspire young girls to keep playing because, at grass roots, we need more girls playing football.

In India, the key is to start at the base and start very young. We need professionally trained talent, talent that wants to make football their career, and people must see football as a strong professional career option.

I learned so much during my time at United. Sharing a dressing room with Paul Scholes, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Ruud van Nistelrooy, and Ryan Giggs at such a young age was an amazing experience. I didn't play as much as I would have liked, but it was a master's degree in development both as a player and a person.

The national team can do so much for Italian football, as can even lads who no-one knows or who play in the lower Leagues.

People enjoy watching sports at the weekend and watching motor racing and whatever sports, and Formula One is the number one global platform which is competing regularly - not like the Olympic Games or the World Cup - so the macro case was this is something that we should be part of because it's going to grow, and it does.

The UFC are doing a tremendous job of promoting the sport worldwide. The views about the sport haven't always been so positive here in the Holland, but it's nice to see change and to see the UFC come to Holland, and everyone been really enthusiastic about it.

At my first clubs, TOP Oss and NEC, I was the one everybody looked at and talked about, but at Feyenoord, I was one of many good players.

I think that what's happening is that girls are enjoying playing. It's a lot more acceptable, and now we have a Women's Super League with hugely dedicated female role models - really committed players who people can see are dedicated and training as hard if not harder than any male players - that's all progressing the sport.