Clint Smith Quotes

All three of my kids play soccer. Each one of them started from the time they were about 5 or 6, and we just love it.

In Europe, it's different - you eat soccer, you breathe soccer, you drink soccer. Everything is about soccer.

I gave up on the delusion that these players enjoy soccer as much as I do, that they play for the love of the game.

When I was younger, soccer was my life. I always wanted to play.

When I came from Europe, I was told that Americans don't care about soccer and this and that. But the way people cared was beyond my wildest expectations. You can't manufacture that.

Honestly, the only thing I loved when I was a kid was basketball. I was an athlete when I was a kid, and that was it.

I played for Santos at 16, and we had an excellent team, so it helped a lot. And then I played for Brazil at the Maracana against Argentina. So I get more experience. This was one year before the World Cup, and it made a lot of difference.

Brazil goes into every World Cup expecting to win - so when it is in Brazil it is expected even more. You can't understand what the World Cup means to our country.

The fans are especially amazing in Mexico. You look out your window, and there are fans that stay out there all night long.

I was the kid who always liked to take the ball down to the school even in my free time, kick it against the wall, juggle it in the front yard and so it was kind of a perpetual state of playing soccer for me.

The aura of soccer is very different from other sports.

Yes there is a little group of soccer aficionados, but I am not one of them.

Football became my life at five or six. The earliest memory I have is of playing in my first boots, a pair of black and white Alan Balls. It was 1970, four years after the World Cup, and I scored three goals at school.

After all these years, I'm finally into soccer. The World Cup is on, and my band is an international group - they're all around me, cheering in the hotel bars.

The World Cup experience is more than just the game of soccer. It's an event. And it will fly by faster than you think. It will end and you'll be saying, 'Wow, it's over already?' You have to remember to take it all in and enjoy it.

I'm not a huge soccer fan, but I follow the sport. I played in high school, a little bit in college, played on various club teams most of my life, and all three of my sons are competitive soccer players and far better than I ever was.

I found that the loudest fans in the world are in Istanbul.

If I'd grown up in Sao Paulo, I'm sure I would've been a great soccer fan.

Every time I pull on a Madrid or Wales top, I run myself into the ground.

I've never met anyone who loves the Socceroos as much as me.

A World Cup would only be a true experience if I were wearing the Brazilian shirt. Otherwise, it would just be like playing for a club.

My dream was always to play for Brazil.

Like many kids, I was thrown into recreational soccer in my town, and from there, I grew to love it. Everywhere I went, I carried a soccer ball with me.

I wasn't really interested in girls. Only football. I was just enjoying football all the time. There was a five-a-side next to the flat, and I used to play there all the time. It was all about football. I wanted to be a professional. That was my goal. I didn't want to be anything other than a footballer.

It's my dream to help Guinea reach the World Cup at least once.