Granit Xhaka Quotes

If a football official were to call for a slow-motion replay every time Didier Drogba fell over, each match would last about six weeks.

To me, discipline in football occurs on the field, not off it.

If you look at my bookings, they've gone down each season. That's something I'm trying to keep improving. On the pitch you don't want any silly bookings.

Even when I was growing up as a young boy, when I was playing schoolboy football, there were other guys who were as good as I was, maybe some even better technically. But I was prepared to stick to what was going to make me become a professional football player when I left school, and that was a lot of sacrifice and because my attitude was right.

In football, you get criticised if you are sent off. It's my style of play, and nobody can make me change that. Even if I get another red card, then that happens. You become cleverer, maybe look more, and since my red card, I think things have improved.

Why should I change my game if I don't even get a yellow card?

We've all had meetings with the referees. We're all clear with how VAR works, and ultimately, you want the rules to be fair.

I learned how to be a smart, tough, fundamentally sound football player.

I'm not a troublemaker. People say, 'You got into a lot of incidents.' Yeah, but it was on the basketball floor.

I admit to becoming frustrated by the frequency of diving in the Champions League.

My dad produces good footballers.

In professional football, there are always going to be critics.

It's true: sometimes Balotelli could behave better, but it also happens to me. I have a similar character, Balotelli is also a very strong player, but if you protest against the referee for every decision, it's logical you are going to irritate the fans.

We try to play football; don't forget it, right. My teams always in my career try to play football. I cannot control the other circumstances.

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.

I won't be fining players for getting sent off.

When I play football, I try to win the game. That is part of me. That is who I am.

Football doesn't build character, it reveals character.

An important mentor for me, in terms of teaching me that there's a right way and a wrong way to do things, was probably my football coach. And playing football was one of the first times in my life that I realized nothing is given to you. You have to work really hard.

It's a basic, elemental universe, one of the last remaining zones where violence and domination sort out who is top dog. That's football's glory, and its curse. The game of football doesn't transfer well to the real world. You can't treat your friends, neighbors, or loved ones the way you treat your opponent on the football field.

Danny Tiatto is not going to make a mistake on purpose.

I've gotten to watch a lot of football games. Growing up, watching sports, watching people compete, whether it's my brothers or teammates. I grew up observing and taking it all in. It's kind of my attitude.

Referees and linesmen are killing teams.

Bill Belichick is the best professional football coach I think ever lived. I'm upset that I played for a plethora of teams and never got an opportunity to play for Bill Belichick.

I loathed the game, and since I could see no pleasure or usefulness in it, it was very difficult for me to show courage at it. Football, it seemed to me, is not really played for the pleasure of kicking a ball about, but is a species of fighting.