Football Artistry Quotes

Pele featured in the Brazilophile imaginary as the a figure of non-utile excess, a carefree artist in the Nietzschean sense, indifferent to the narrow teleology of winning matches... check the way that most of the endlessly replayed footage we see of Pele is not of him scoring goals, but audaciously missing chances contrived by force of wit.

When fans showed up at Candlestick, there was a great sense of anticipation that they would watch not only winning football, but also artistry. Our offense was that sublime.

Thierry Henry could take the ball in the middle of the park and score a goal that no one else in the world could score.

Even as a footballer, I was always being creative.

Arsene Wenger's mentality has been to bring together footballers who bring happiness in our sport, the type of players I like to watch. I've followed him since he was in Japan, and he always was a guardian of the art of football - football with happiness and football played well.

Almost any football play, even an off-tackle slant by a running back, offers the balletic beauty of athletic skill and the punishing drama of physical collision.

The greatest footballers take the sport into the world of art, of performance.