Knute Rockne Quotes

I was not a very good football player when I started out.

Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso was always bemused by our enthusiasm for tackling, because he saw it as the last resort.

Sometimes you'll have 30, 40 touches in the game, and you'll feel better than if you had 22. It depends on where you get hit and how you get hit.

The Premier League has a lot of intensity, a lot of physicality.

I've got a lot of power in my kicks.

Tackling, and that ability to stay on your feet and pressurise a player, is a dying art.

Power is power. It's energy. And if you get big, big energy, you can use that in a good way.

The only difference between a good shot and a bad shot is if it goes in or not.

Football isn't a contact sport, it's a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport.

My uncle played rugby, and my dad played football, and they used to argue which game was the roughest - and everybody agreed rugby was. It's a great team sport, and to be successful, every person has to play in the same level.

Playing football, I'm getting chills just thinking about it. That first knock of the game, you are going on kickoff, and you are just trying to smack somebody just as hard as you can. That's how I play baseball. I want to hit you.

The World Cup is a very important way to measure the good players, and the great ones. It is a test of a great player.

Sometimes going in for a hard tackle generates a louder cheer than a great pass.

Football is a violent sport. Somebody's going to get hurt. It's the game. Just hopefully, you're on the good side of it.

I put a lot of fire in my punches.

There are a lot of great fighters in this sport, but they just don't bring what I bring to the table.

I used to enjoy back-picking big guys all the time.

Nobody likes it when people dribble past them, me included, but I can't tackle.

I really like Ronaldinho. He is the player I have watched the most and tried to copy the most, but I am still learning.

I think, first and foremost, Wayne Rooney is a class player. Wherever he is on the pitch, he can make an impact.

More than anything I prefer the ball on the floor. I think I play my best football on the floor. There is a delicacy to this big giant.

The thing about kicking is, it's not as competitive as other positions, but I feel like I am a competitor.

Growing up, I loved Messi. I love how he dribbles, how he plays the game, it just makes it look so easy and it makes it look so fun.

Sometimes you watch a tournament with a point system, and it's not the best fighter that wins. It's the guy who scores more points and then he runs away and hides.

I don't know how many times you see 10s tackle each other.